CONVICTED MURDERER Joe O'Reilly will have to wait until the new year for the verdict on his appeal against his conviction for the murder of his wife Rachel at their home in The Naul, Co Dublin.
The three-judge Court of Criminal Appeal yesterday reserved judgment on the appeal by the father of two against his conviction in July 2007.
The trial heard the body of Ms O'Reilly (30) was found in the bedroom of the couple's home by her mother, Rose Callaly, on the morning of October 4th, 2004. She was killed as a result of blunt force trauma to the head.
O'Reilly, who denies murdering his wife, attended his appeal in a packed court in the Four Courts yesterday.
O'Reilly (36) was convicted unanimously by a jury of the murder of his wife at their home on October 4th, 2004. He was jailed for life by Mr Justice Barry White.
After hearing submissions for O'Reilly and the DPP, the Chief Justice Mr Justice John Murray, presiding at the appeal court and sitting with Mr Justice Roderick Murphy and Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy, said the court would reserve judgment.
Moving the appeal, Patrick Gageby SC, for O'Reilly, said the grounds of appeal included 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.
Mr Gageby submitted there was no evidence before the court that O2 Ireland was a licensed phone operator under the terms of the Postal and Telecommunications Service Act 1983 and therefore the phone evidence was not legally before the jury.
He argued that e-mails from a computer alleged by the prosecution to be O'Reilly's should have been excluded because their evidential value was outweighed by their prejudicial value as they were sent in June 2004, several months before Rachel's death.
Mr Gageby said that time was too far removed from the events of October 2004.
He also submitted the trial judge should not have allowed evidence of three interviews with O'Reilly while in Garda custody go before the jury in a manner where it was clear to the jury he had remained silent for the most of the time he was being interviewed.
Mr Gageby said the times when the interviews had begun and concluded were on the statements.
A witness statement by O'Reilly of October 6th, 2004, should also have been excluded because he was at that stage a suspect, Mr Gageby added. The trial judge had erred in allowing that statement be used as evidence because O'Reilly had told gardaí some weeks later the contents of that statement were correct.
Mr Gageby further argued that evidence from Andrew Laws relating to CCTV footage about movements of cars on the date of the murder was inadmissible and flawed as it only involved comparisons with a Fiat Marea car, the type of car driven by O'Reilly, and no other car.
Other grounds of appeal, including that the jury should not have heard evidence that O'Reilly spent the night with Nikki Pelley after a Late Late Show appearance with his wife's family concerning her death were not pursued.