Documentary on the Joe O' Reilly case

It's not so much about the documentary but about the issues raised.

He beat to death his wife and the mother of his children.

He appeared to have hated her constantly put her down said she was a dreadful mother ect, also seemed to be quite resentful of his parents-in-law and was having an affair.

What causes the complete lack of insight into himself and the complete lack of empathy and also the belief he would get away with it?

is it a personality disorder? is it evil? ( not a belief in the devil sort of evil ).

Gregor Samsa

You'll get terms like psychopath, sociopath, narcissist thrown around in the replies. Maybe they all have elements of truth to them, but can anyone here really diagnose someone via media reports? It's fine for AA speculation, but that's really as far as it goes, unless there's some actual medical/psychological report available.

As for "evil", what does that even really mean? Back in the day when that was conceived as a reason for actions, it was often assumed to be an external force acting on someone. Which actually, when you think about it, absolves them of responsibility. Now we know that's not actually a thing. So what's left? How does "evil" distinguish itself from any given personality, psychological or psychiatric disorder? It is just what's left when everything else is discounted? I think it's a valid word we use to express an emotion about our revulsion for certain actions, but I don't think it actually means anything in terms of the reasons or motivations behind them.

JimmyVik

I know some people who knew him well and they all thought he was a lovely fella.

You just dont know whats underneath.

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118250491#Comment_118250491

Maybe nobody is going to mention any of those in their replies.

Princess Calla

The fact that he let her mother find her.

Him then re-enacting what "could have" happened to her bereaved parents just absolutely turned my stomach.

Him and his sister coordinating a campaign against Rachel, bringing social services in to their lives claiming that Rachel was an unfit mother etc would also indicate to me that there's something sinister in the O'Reilly "bloodline" for want of a better description....the whole nature/nurture argument.

All because he wanted his mistress and didn't want to be a weekend dad?

A chilling case!

Strange one, and from watching it hindsight is definitely 20/20

Gregor Samsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118250904#Comment_118250904

Very true, there's always a first time.

Immortal Starlight

Horrible disgusting man who should never see the light of day again.

ohnonotgmail

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118250543#Comment_118250543

I knew his brother. Joe seemed to be much the same as him. always a little bit "different".

thefallingman

I wonder what his kids believe ? I always found it odd that his girlfriend stuck by him aswell

Princess Calla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118251084#Comment_118251084

In another thread a poster said the kids believed he was innocent....I really hope that's not true.

Trigger Happy

There are a few cases over the years that stick in the memory. Joe O'Reilly and Graham Dwyer are two of the ones where the country seemed to jump for joy at their convictions. Pure evil heartless b@starts.

dublin49

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118251220#Comment_118251220

In relation to high profile cases like this one ,David Murphy,and especially Malcolm Mc Arthur ,all appear to serve much longer terms for their crimes than the "7 years" for a murder "we commonly hear as the real sentence for murder in this country.McArthur must have been in for nearly 30 years as was only recently released as far as I know.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118251329#Comment_118251329

The "7 years" was the average in the 1990s. Its now about 20 and going up - we don't release people early anymore.

That's 20 at release, not an average of people inside being pulled up by "capital" (40 year term) cases / McArthur alikes.

freshpopcorn

Well I didn't know Rachel or Joe but I don't know what type of people they were. You always hear so many things about people who are involved in high profile cases.

It can be strange tough when you know somebody who killed somebody or was murdered to say what they were like.

From my understanding that the kids are in there twenties now and they've a good relationship with Joe. I think they went to see him in jail and would probably have being in the care of his mother. In my opinion Joe can never really admit to killing Rachel because if he does he'll be admitting to killing the kids mother.

Joe didn't want to be a weekend dad and he wanted to keep the house, the kids, etc.

He was fairly forensically away, there was no blood found in his car, his clothes, etc no murder weapon and he accounted for all these things.

Driving that rare Fiat estate and the mobile phone mast was his downfall really. He never thought of that.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118251740#Comment_118251740

There seems to be a lot more understanding of murder and motivations for murder now and that might be why sentences are getting longer.

Even bringing it back a bit there are still individuals who blame their partners for their own issues and don't seem to understand that blaming and resentment others is a form of abuse despite all the awareness out there.

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118251329#Comment_118251329

Malcolm Mc Arthur should have died in prison.

Atlantic Dawn

I believe it was his drive to keep his kids that made him kill her, if they seperated because of the affair he would have been highly unlikely to have been given sole custody. He likely saw killing her and making it look like a break-in as getting rid of her and also giving him custody of the kids. He probably would have got away with it only for the phone records, looks like he was DNA aware.

cap.in.hand.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118251821#Comment_118251821

I'm sure everyone knows now not to have your phone with you now if your planning anything as it would be pinging all over the country.....even Tina satchwell left her phone at home.

Princess Calla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118251900#Comment_118251900

Yeah he even hugged her dead body to contaminate the site.

BingCrosbee

The night before the trial began I was having a Chinese meal in Mullingar. Joe Reilly, his lover and his parents were at the table net to us. Joes mutton head was facing me, I’ll never forget it.

The difference between what he did and the normal way of sorting whatever issues he had.

He wasn't happy being married to her and they seemed to have gotten married very young people do change as they grow up and end up wanting different things from life. They eventually separate knowing this will have lots of financial and emotional implications and probably a lot of resentment too, some end up civil with each other they move on may end up in another relationship.

I know people who have left their partner for someone else and it's not always a man doing the leaving although that would be the stereotype.

It's the fact that he thought he could murder her and discard her like she was an old rag as a way out of the situation that makes him not right in the head as my mother would have put it.

Pussyhands

The thing that always makes me wonder, and it's similar for other incidents such as Graham Dwyer, is what they were thinking when pushed them over the edge on that day to make them go through with it.

He went to work and then came back and then went back to work.

Why wouldn't he have done it before he went to work and then go to work?

Nikki Pelley isn't as attractive as Rachel was either.

costacorta

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252166#Comment_118252166

I presume he had it planned so he would get away with it !! He thought he would have an alibi and only for cameras at quarry and mobile phone evidence he would have got away with it .

Mongfinder General

Unfortunately for him, he just wasn’t as intelligent as he thought.

In his mind, doing 15 years in jail was probably worth the risk and it would also deprive his wife of raising her two kids. He’s doing a fair stretch now past 15 years.

pgj2015

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118251928#Comment_118251928

look what them ejits did with their phones before they robbed the credit union in Louth. Aaron brady and his mates.

cap.in.hand.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252426#Comment_118252426

There's always exceptions in these cases.....

Princess Calla

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252166#Comment_118252166

Didn't Rachel challenge him over his affair?

I'd say that's what's pushed him there, couldn't face being a weekend dad her getting the house etc. Probably worried about not appearing perfect too, if it got out he was an adulterer.

The case did hinge on the CCTV, his car being rare enough and the phone pings. His alibi didn't check out. Then his mistress repeating a conversation to her friend....thank God her friend came forward with that.

the 12 th man

He's watching with keen interest to see if that other poxbottle Dwyer's appeal is successful and he gets off on the rebuffing of the phone mast evidence which O'Reilly will copycat.

standardg60

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252426#Comment_118252426

They thought turning their phones off was the answer but that counted against them too. Seems you can't win having a mobile nowadays.

As for Joe, i thought is was pretty sickening sending her parents to find her and then inviting them over and re-enacting the murder while they watched as soon as he got the keys back. He clearly hated them as much as he did Rachael.

I didn't know the kids went to stay with his mother afterwards, no wonder they think he's innocent, clearly been prejudiced in their upbringing. Seem to be quite a sinister family. I imagine Pelley has been a part of their lives too.

pgj2015

Its mad how his family don't care that he carried out such a horrific murder. There is no way they think he is innocent. Any normal person would disown him.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118253636#Comment_118253636

The Case I Can't Forget @ https://www.rte.ie/player/series/the-case-i-can-t-forget-s2-e1/SI0000008064?epguid=IP000067302

Pussyhands

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118252585#Comment_118252585

I remember in the doc there was something about Rachel saying something had to change or things would change.

But it didn't say when she said that in relation to when it happened. He didn't plan it well at all.

• He didn't have an eye witness for his alibi at Broadstone
• You'd have thought he'd have checked out his route to ensure he wasn't seen on CCTV
• You'd think he'd have left his phone at work.
• There had to have been some evidence or DNA on clothes etc. that he managed to "cover" for himself by hugging Rachels body when he came into the house getting her blood over him. What if he arrived home and the guards didn't allow anyone in?
• His behaviour was very strange after and would have made him look very suspect (i.e lying about the affair, lying about the guard saying the Late Late was a good idea, staying with his mistress the night he was on the Late Late, the strange behaviour of re enacting the murder.

I'm actually surprised how much evidence they needed to charge him.

• CCTV of his car
• Lying about affair being over
• Staying with his mistress on night of the Late Late
• No alibi to prove he was at Broadstone (I think they said the eye witness Reilly said he saw turned out not to be there)
• Pelleys friend saying Joe said he'd kill Rachel if he got away with it.

All the above wasn't enough to charge him, they needed the phone pings.

I find that crazy. Did they not detain his email and phone records? That would have quickly and easily shown he was lying about the affair being over and shown all the hate emails about Rachel

standardg60

The mobile phone pings were completely new at the time, he couldn't have foreseen that. If he'd left the phone in Broadstone he'd never have been convicted, he nearly committed the perfect murder.

Would love to know where the towel he used and the murder weapon (a dumbbell by his own account) ended up. They're still out there somewhere.

Pussyhands

If mobile phone pings are enough to pin you to the scene of a crime, if they ping elsewhere, would that rule you out of a murder?

Could lead to people putting their phone into someone elses bag or something.

wonga77

The Guards deserve great credit for pursuing it and seeing the charge pushed through.

God love the poor mother who found her daughter battered to death. He deserved to be buried in a deep hole for that alone

Pussyhands

I wonder what the people are like that live there now.

I checked on google maps and there's a recovery truck there.

Would they have been told of the history? Maybe they are foreigners without knowing of the case there.

It's mad how fast time flies. The time between O'Reilly being jailed and the house being sold is shorter than the time the house was sold and now.

freshpopcorn

@Pussyhands I'm fairly sure that house was rented out for a while and then sold.

TV3 did a program outside it a few years ago and it looked fairly spruced up. A simple Goggle would have told people about the house.

From what I know Joe did have some sort alibi the morning at the bus depot. It was sort of Joe was working in one area and he was in another area.

Were the jury told about the murder tours, etc or were they made public after it happened.

Pussyhands

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118254307#Comment_118254307

Murder tours?

I wonder what room she was murdered in? The house looks pretty run down inside and not much done with it when it was being sold.

freshpopcorn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118254429#Comment_118254429

Ya, I think when I saw it some where last it had new windows, painted grey, etc.

I'm fairly sure it was fairly documented at the time that it was in the bedroom.

freshpopcorn

Strumms

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118253333#Comment_118253333

This.... maybe they didn’t like the girl but fùck that... if a relation of mine killed someone unless it was self defense... goodbye..

standardg60

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118254429#Comment_118254429

Seriously, you'd want to make yourself more au fait with the case before posting on here.

He conducted 'murder tours' for anyone who was interested, including raining down imaginary blows on one knee in front of her parents, and also saying that the killer 'may' have had to interrupt their cleaning up when they heard her gurgling to go back and administer one more blow.

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118253333#Comment_118253333

Graham Dwyers family are exactly the same. I remember reading an account of the trial that during intervals that his father would chat and joke with him on the stand, all in front of Elaine O Haras family. They seem like a strange bunch.

MintyMagnum

At one stage weren't Rachel's parents fighting for access to their grandsons. Big bang of 'My Johnny' off his mother. Crazy to think of Rachel's kids raised in that toxic household being told god knows what about their 'terrible' mother and 'wronged' saintly father. His sister seems quite the piece of toxic work too. Terrible smear campaign they were all involved in before O' Reilly killed their daughter -in- law / sister-in-law trying to paint Rachel as an unfit mother, a narrative which social services didn't buy. Don't know how the Callalys fared with access they couldn't talk about it in the media. Seems wrong to me that his lot got her kids.

MintyMagnum

Is it how they are such master manipulators they even have their own families fooled? I know someone here said he will never confess because it means he will have to admit to the kids he killed their mother but how does he account for his phone being at the scene at the time of their mother's murder ... or its journey to work early morning, then back out from work and back into work again mid morning...

Jequ0n

Of course he staged the scene and put on a show…nobody wants to get caught for murder. There is nothing unusual or strange about this behaviour as such, but he obviously overplayed it and got caught. I am surprised so many people find it unusual that he would have tried to get away with his crime.

Ush1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118251821#Comment_118251821

There was blood on the inner part of his boot which would not be accounted for by him moving a box after the mother discovered the body. It's not too difficult to contaminate a scene when your live with the victim and would be often in physical contact. Your DNA would be expected to be everywhere.

I wonder would genuine mental health support prevent issues like this? or is the behavior set in stone and no counseling or reality testing or anything similar would help?

It was obvious he thought his parent in law looked down on or thought they were better than him even though that was all nonsense and all in his head, or his belief that his wife was a bad mother again all in his head no basis in reality, or are the beliefs so deeply internalised nothing would help.

As someone else said a big bang of my Jonney is perfect/wouldn't do anything like that it's all someone else's fault from the whole case.

storker

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118254547#Comment_118254547

I always thought that re-enactment was a dead giveaway.

JustJoe7240

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118254547#Comment_118254547

Murder tours usually involve taking people on tours of an area and saying "and there is where so and so was murdered", not what you describe.

Also, This is After hours lest we forget.