The appeal by Joe O’Reilly against his conviction for the murder of his wife, Rachel, will be heard next December.
The Court of Criminal Appeal today fixed December 18th as the date of the appeal, to be heard over one day before a three-judge court.
Mr O'Reilly was not in court when his case was briefly mentioned before Mr Justice Adrian Hardiman at the CCA.
Mr 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. The couple had two children.
Mr O'Reilly, who denied the charge, was jailed for life by Mr Justice Barry White. He lodged an appeal against conviction and sentence last August arguing the conduct of the trial was unsatisfactory on several grounds and his conviction therefore "unsafe".
It is believed Mr O'Reilly will contend the evidence against him was insufficient to allow any more than a suspicion of guilt on his part and that the trial judge should, in those circumstances, have directed the jury to enter a not guilty verdict.
Mr 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 Mr 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.
