AN APPEAL by Joe O'Reilly against his conviction for the murder of his wife Rachel will be heard by the Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) next Thursday.
When the case was briefly mentioned before the CCA yesterday, the court was told O'Reilly's appeal will go ahead as scheduled. The CCA had previously fixed December 18th next as the date of the appeal, to be heard over one day before a three-judge court.
O'Reilly was not in court when his case was mentioned to Ms Justice Fidelma Macken. The appeal will be heard by the Chief Justice John Murray, sitting with Mr Justice Roderick Murphy and Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy.
O'Reilly (35), Lambay View, Baldarragh, The Naul, was convicted unanimously by a jury at the Central Criminal Court in July 2007 of the murder of his 30-year-old wife at their home on October 4th, 2004. O'Reilly, who denied the charge, was jailed for life by Mr Justice Barry White.
He lodged an appeal against conviction and sentence in August 2007, arguing the conduct of the trial was unsatisfactory on several grounds and that his conviction is therefore "unsafe".
O'Reilly will contend the evidence against him was insufficient to allow any more than a suspicion of guilt on his part and the trial judge should, in those circumstances, have directed the jury to enter a not guilty verdict.
O'Reilly's grounds of appeal were lodged with the Court of Criminal Appeal last year and include arguments that evidence of mobile phone records and data relating to the location of O'Reilly's mobile phone on the date of his wife's murder should not have been permitted by the trial judge to go before the jury.