Family and investigating gardaí welcome dismissal

THE FAILURE of Joe O’Reilly’s appeal was welcomed by Rachel O’Reilly’s family and gardaí who had worked on the case.

Her mother, Rose Callaly, said it had been “a long 4½ years” for the family. “We are relieved it is all over. Joe O’Reilly is not the only one serving a life sentence. He gave our whole family a life sentence the day he murdered Rachel,” she said.

“We are indebted to all the gardaí who brought him to justice.” She also thanked Victim Support for their help.

Asked if she ever had any doubt that he would lose his appeal, Ms Callaly said: “I never had any doubt and thank God today, now everything has come to a head, and please God we will be able to move forward, hopefully.”

She said the family had been finding it very difficult to move on since O’Reilly was convicted of murder last July.

“Rachel has never left our sides since the day she was taken from us and I realise now – unfortunately I thought that after the trial that we would move on – I realise now that it’s never going to happen,” she said.

“That part of our lives is just with us forever and it’s something we are going to have to learn to live with. But we are so proud of everybody today and so thankful.”

Rachel O’Reilly’s father Jim, said it was a great relief that it was all over. “It’s a long old road,” he said and wiped his eyes with a handkerchief.

Her birth mother, Teresa Lowe, said hearing the verdict was like “winning the Lotto”. She was jubilant outside the court and said it meant that “Rachel can sleep in peace now”.

Flanked by her daughters, she said: “We’re over the moon with the verdict and we deserved to get it”.

She never had any doubts about the outcome. “We’d great friends in the police and that and the court support and all was brilliant. They helped us through everything.”

Her daughter Sandra Lowe said it had been a very arduous and emotional journey for the family. “Today is just, I guess, the end of the legal side of things and it means that we can kind of focus on what’s important, which is Rachel, our family, friends, and Luke and Adam .”

Several gardaí who had worked on the case were in court to hear the verdict. Retired assistant commissioner Martin Donnellan, one of the gardaí who led the investigation, said he was delighted with the result.

“I’m delighted for the family, the Callaly family, in particular. I think they’ve gone through an awful lot. And I’d like to compliment the trial judge for the way he ran the trial. I thought he did an excellent job on it and I’d like to compliment the entire Garda team, from the most junior guard to the most senior for their professionalism in this investigation,” he said.

Mr Donnellan said the management and engineers from the 02 phone company had played an “absolutely crucial part in this investigation”.

O’Reilly had told gardaí he was in the city at work at the time of the murder. However, the phone evidence proved he was in north Co Dublin on that morning. The records found that he sent a text message to his wife, then dead, shortly after 9am.

The message was picked up by two masts, indicating that he was travelling back towards Dublin at that time.

Gardaí presumed that O’Reilly sent the text message to give the impression that he was innocent but in fact it had the opposite effect.

Mr Donnellan agreed that much of the evidence was circumstantial but the 02 evidence “put it to bed properly”, he said. Asked to describe O’Reilly, Mr Donnellan said: “He thought he was a very clever man but maybe he was too clever for his own good.”