Thirty-three months after the violent death of his 30-year-old wife and mother of his two small boys, the imposing, grey-suited figure of Joe O'Reilly arrived into the Central Criminal Court at 12.10pm, laid his umbrella carefully to one side, took a seat in the dock beside the witness box, and calmly proceeded to make notes in a file hidden from view on his lap. Kathy Sheridanreports.
Moments earlier, accompanied by his mother, he had pleaded "not guilty" to Rachel O'Reilly's murder, in clear, emphatic tones.
A few yards away, members of Rachel's family, including her mother Rose Callaly, who found her body, her father Jim and her sister Ann, clasped each other's hands as the jury of nine men and three women filed in, bracing themselves for six weeks of harrowing evidence from some 170 witnesses, in a case "almost wholly dependent on circumstantial evidence", in the words of prosecution counsel Denis Vaughan Buckley SC.
Rachel's birth mother, Teresa Lowe, and other relations were also in court.
The presence of up to 30 journalists reflected the intense public interest in the case, much of it generated by a Late Late Show appearance by the accused man a few weeks after his wife's death and the exhumation of her body in 2005.
Later, lawyers, family, media and observers sat in stunned silence listening to the contents of his letter to his dead wife, recovered from the exhumed coffin.
The handwriting, reported to be indecipherable in previous newspaper reports, was clear enough. It included the words selected by Mr Vaughan Buckley for his opening address: "This is the hardest letter I've ever had to write, for reasons only we know. Rachel, please forgive me. Two words, one sentence, but I will say them forever".
Repeated declarations of love and loss are interwoven with suggestions of a life of love and laughter. "You are a smoker then. Fair play to you for keeping that quiet. You made me laugh, you always did."
He regrets that her mother "found out about Teresa, Thomas and co, but please, don't blame me, it wasn't my fault". He will miss her "mad personality and can-do attitude", he writes. "Like Peter Pan, you'll never grow old."
He wishes her a happy 31st birthday: "You're no doubt having the best wine, the best coffee and the best ciggies" and signs it with love and kisses, "Your hubby-wubby, Joefus". The letter ends with messages of love and kisses from their two boys. During the reading of the letter, he wept silently. His morning jottings had stopped.
Meanwhile, an hour into the trial, one of the three female jury members had been discharged, following earlier comments made to a man about the guilt or innocence of Mr O'Reilly. "It wasn't my opinion, it was rumour . . . heard in work, not by anyone who knew anything," she told the judge.
The jury is now down to 11, nine men and two women. Six women had been challenged by the defence while being empanelled.
As Mr Vaughan Buckley proceeded to focus on Joe O'Reilly's behaviour immediately after the killing, Rachel's sister Ann gripped her mother's hand as tears trickled down her cheeks.