O’Reilly gets legal aid for appeal bid

Convicted wife murderer Joe O’Reilly has been granted legal aid to pursue an appeal to the Supreme Court, one year after his miscarriage of justice bid was dismissed as an “abuse of process”.

In July 2007, O’Reilly was found guilty by a Central Criminal Court jury and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife, Rachel, at their home in the Naul, Co Dublin, on October 4, 2004.

In 2009, O’Reilly lost an appeal against his conviction and last May an application to have his conviction declared a miscarriage of justice was dismissed as an “abuse of process” by the Court of Appeal.