Murdered woman's husband fined for driving offence
The husband of a murdered mother of two was fined €750 today for driving his sister’s car without insurance.
Joe O’Reilly pleaded guilty at Balbriggan District Court to using the car without insurance on November 23 last year, almost two months after his wife died in a brutal attack at the family home.
She was found battered to death in their house in Baldarragh, the Naul, north Dublin, on October 4 last year. No-one has been charged with her murder.
Mr O’Reilly was stopped in his sister’s car by gardaí investigating a road accident in Walshestown, the court was told.
Garda Declan McGarvey told the court that O’Reilly’s own car was being examined by forensic detectives at the time in relation to another matter.
Garda McGarvey said the father of two had been asked to produce his driving licence and insurance for the vehicle at the scene of the accident, but he failed to do so.
Mr O’Reilly, 33, was fined €750 for having no insurance. But a charge of failing to produce his licence was struck out by the court.
Mr O’Reilly appeared in court but remained silent during the hearing.
The inquest into his wife’s death was postponed at Dublin Coroners Court in Tallaght in September.
The inquest was told a Garda file on the brutal killing had not yet been submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Housewife Rachel O’Reilly was found lying with head injuries at her home in the Naul. She had been battered to death with a blunt instrument.
The inquest was told she died after receiving multiple blows to the head, which fractured her skull and damaged her brain.
Gardaí believe she was killed on the morning of October 4 and that her killer was waiting for her when she returned home after dropping her two sons at school.
Detectives investigating the murder have checked mobile phone records of the chief suspect and carried out a nationwide search for a Fiat car seen in the area at the time of the murder.
In a further twist, Mrs O’Reilly’s body was exhumed from her grave in Fingal Cemetery in March 2005 after gardaí received information that a note had been placed in her coffin.
Three people, including a workmate and a female friend, were arrested and questioned over the murder last November but later released without charge.
