Dumbbell may be tied to O’Reilly murder

A dumbbell found in a stream not far from the home of murdered Rachel O’Reilly is being examined to see if it could have been the weapon used to kill her.

The find was made by a local man who spotted it in water about 2km from the north Co Dublin bungalow where the mother of two was battered to death in Oct 2004. Her husband, Joe O’Reilly, was found guilty of her murder in 2007 and is serving a life sentence in prison where he is preparing a legal challenge, claiming his conviction was a miscarriage of justice.

Gardaí confirmed yesterday that an item had been notified to Balbriggan Garda Station and had been removed for forensic examination, but said it was not being linked to any particular investigation at this stage.

However, the discovery is of significant interest to detectives who organised intensive searches of a wide area surrounding the O’Reilly home in the days after Rachel’s murder in a vain attempt to find the murder weapon.

From early in the investigation, gardaí believed a dumbbell was used to attack her. Her injuries included a severe gash to her head caused by a blow from a heavy implement, and the murder trial heard that Joe O’Reilly himself asked that officers check on the weightlifting equipment in the house, suggesting they might find the murder weapon there.

Evidence from a garda at the time said O’Reilly told him he and Rachel had owned two small solid handheld dumbbells, two more with removable weights and two larger ones. It is not clear yet whether the dumbbell found in the stream fits the description of any missing from that collection.

Another witness, a friend of Rachel’s, gave evidence of Joe O’Reilly telling her that gardaí were wasting their time searching fields when it was more likely the murderer had dumped the weapon in water to remove traces of DNA.

Joe O’Reilly has lost one appeal against his conviction. In 2009 he claimed unsuccessfully that technical evidence from mobile phone masts tracing his movements around the time of the murder, and other circumstantial evidence, should not have been admitted to court. His new appeal is based on the argument that prosecution documents were accidently left in the jurors’ room during his 2007 trial. It was given a court date last year but was struck out with permission to re-enter the case as he was not ready to proceed, but he indicated he would lodge a fresh application.