Analysis of telephone records places the mobile phone of Joe O'Reilly's work colleague Derek Quearney in the vicinity of the Broadstone bus garage in Dublin on the morning Mr O'Reilly's wife Rachel was murdered and is consistent with the account Mr Quearney gave gardaí, the Central Criminal Court heard yesterday in the O'Reilly murder trial.
Electronic engineer Oliver Farrell, who works with the engineering consultancy Vilicom, took to the stand for the second day yesterday to give evidence of the analysis of Derek Quearney's mobile phone records.
Mr Quearney worked with Mr O'Reilly in the outdoor advertising company Viacom, based in the Bluebell Industrial Estate.
The court has already heard how Mr O'Reilly told gardaí he was inspecting posters in the Broadstone bus garage with Mr Quearney on the morning of the murder.
Telecommunications expert Mr Farrell was giving evidence on the 12th day of the trial of Mr O'Reilly (35), of Lambay View, Baldarragh, the Naul, Co Dublin.
Mr O'Reilly has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife and mother of their two children, Rachel O'Reilly (30), at the family home on October 4th, 2004.
Mr Farrell told prosecution counsel Dominic McGinn BL that he received Mr Quearney's mobile phone records from 02 and analysed them to show telephone traffic on his mobile phone during the morning of the murder.
He said the first call at 07:30:53 routed through Nangor Road mast, close to Riverview Business Park and encompassing the Park West area, meant the mobile phone analysis was in keeping with Mr Quearney meeting Mr O'Reilly in this area.
Analysis of Mr O'Reilly's phone showed his mobile was routed through the same transmitter "within five minutes" of Mr Quearney's phone.
He then analysed seven calls between 8.37 to 9.00am. The first three were routed through the Killeen Road ESB mast which covers the Bluebell Industrial Estate and were therefore consistent with him being at work in Viacom.
The following four calls were picked up by a mast in the Chapelizod area, north of Bluebell.
He said this corresponded with Mr Quearney being in work in Bluebell Industrial Estate and then travelling towards the Broadstone bus garage.
He said the next call at 09:25:07 was picked up by a mast in Dominick Street in the north inner city that covered the Broadstone bus garage. A further three calls were routed through masts at North King Street and the Bridewell.
While the next call at 10:59:45 was picked up by a mast on Harcourt Street in the south inner city, he explained it could still be possible for the phone to be in the vicinity of the Broadstone bus garage, as the Harcourt Street mast is very high and has an extended area of coverage.
He said the following four calls up until 11:45:45 were consistent with Mr Quearney making the return journey from the Broadstone garage towards the Bluebell Industrial Estate.
Mr McGinn then asked him to compare analysis of both phones in relation to the Broadstone bus garage.
He said the first time Mr O'Reilly's phone was routed through a mast near Broadstone was 10:38:27 and that Mr Quearney's phone was first used in that area over an hour earlier at 09:25.
Under cross-examination by defence counsel Patrick Gageby SC, Mr Farrell agreed his analysis was reliant on the accuracy of the information given to him.
He insisted it would be possible for the mast in Harcourt Street to pick up the signal from Mr Quearney's phone in the Broadstone bus garage.
However, he agreed it was possible for masts to have a broader area of coverage area than they do in theory.
He also explained that when the nearest mobile phone transmitter was too busy or had a weakened signal due to an obstacle, the handset signal would be rerouted through the next strongest signal it could find.
When asked by Mr McGinn whether it would be possible for a signal from a phone in Murphy's Quarry to be rerouted through a transmitter in the Murphy's Quarry mast, he said: "No it would not."
A number of Garda witnesses, including Deputy Commissioner Martin Callinan, then gave evidence of the procedures they were required to carry out in order to obtain the phone records from 02 Ireland.