Murder trial hears details of O'Reilly affair

The woman with whom murder accused Joe O'Reilly was having an affair told the jury in the Central Criminal Court today that they were planning a "permanent future" together.

Nikki Pelley, from Rathfarnham in Dublin, also revealed Mr O'Reilly spent the night with her at her home after he made an appearance on the Late Late Show, roughly two weeks after the murder of his wife.

It was the 14th day of the trial of Mr O'Reilly (35) of Lambay View, Baldarragh, Naul, Co Dublin who 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.

Ms Pelley told prosecuting counsel Mr Denis Vaughan Buckley SC that she used to work with Mr O'Reilly in the outdoor advertising company, Viacom.

She said that she had left the company by the time she met Mr O'Reilly again at a function in the Barge Pub in Portobello in January 2004.

She said other work colleagues were there and that she got talking to Mr O'Reilly.

Asked whether she kept in contact with him after the function, she said: "Yeah we sent jokes and texts and that kind of thing for a while."

She said the first time she met him was "a couple of months later, or maybe a month later we met for lunch".

She said this encounter took place in The Templeogue Inn and that they met for lunch there a further two or three times. After this, they went to the cinema in the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre and met for lunch on another occasion.

Some time after this they had begun a sexual relationship, the court heard.

When Mr Vaughan Buckley asked her: "When did it become sexual?," she replied: "Probably three or four months after the cinema."

Asked how often they would meet, the witness said "weekly, maybe three or four times a week".

Ms Pelley said these meetings would normally take place in her house on Tuesdays, initially, and later on, on Saturdays also.

Asked whether she'd ever met Mr O'Reilly's wife, Rachel, she replied: "Once, well I didn't meet her but I saw her once at a softball event."

Mr Vaughan Buckley then asked: "Did you think she knew?"

"I don't think so," she replied.

On Saturdays, she said Mr O'Reilly would meet her during the afternoon and then go home. Mr O'Reilly said to her that the excuse he gave to Rachel was that he was "working and possibly staying in the office".

She also said they went on a trip lasting a couple of days to the country.

"We went down to our family home in Wexford," she said.

Asked whether Mr O'Reilly ever discussed his marriage with her, she said: "He told me they had effectively split about one and a half years prior to my meeting him."

She said he also told her they had separate bedrooms.

Asked if she had ever met the O'Reillys' two sons, Ms Pelley said she had met them on "a number of occasions" on Saturday afternoons.

She would meet them "at home" in Rathfarnham "or we'd go to the zoo".

Ms Pelley was also asked whether she'd ever stayed in the O'Reilly house in the Naul, to which she replied: "I did, once." Asked when, she said: "One Friday."

She said Rachel was not there at the time and that she thought she may have been in the country.

Asked about a phone call she had with Mr O'Reilly the night before the murder, she said she remembered the call but she said she didn't remember him talking to her about Rachel.

She also remembered calling him around 5.45am the following morning, the day of the killing. However, she disagreed with Mr Vaughan Buckley that it was a "long conversation".

When asked about a later phone call she had with Mr O'Reilly at 8.12am, she said she couldn't remember that.

Mr Vaughan Buckley then asked her about witness statements she made to gardai in the immediate aftermath of the murder 5th and 27th October 2004.

"Did you tell them the truth about your relationship?" he asked. "No, I told them it was just an affair," she said.

When asked whether she told them it was "more than an affair" some time later, she replied: "I did."

Mr Vaughan Buckley then asked her why she didn't tell them this in the first place, she said: "I don't know, I just did."

Asked whether Mr O'Reilly had suggested this to her, she said: "No, he just said he told them it was an affair and he wanted me to do the same."

She said Mr O'Reilly never gave her a reason for this.

Ms Pelley was asked whether she and Mr O'Reilly had ever discussed their futures.

"We talked about things, yes," she said. "We talked about a future, about being together."

Asked to clarify whether these discussions included plans for "being together permanently", Ms Pelley said: "We talked about it, yes."

Referring to Mr O'Reilly's children, she said he told her where they ended up was one of two choices. "It was two choices. The children either stay with Joe or stay with Rachel."

She said Mr O'Reilly told her he "would have preferred full custody but would have settled for joint custody".

Mr Vaughan Buckley then proceeded to ask her about two halves of a credit card. She was handed the exhibit in the witness box and requested to put them together. Asked to tell the court what it read, she said: "Ms Nikki P Reilly."

Ms Pelley said that either she or Joe O'Reilly had done this "for fun".

"It was just a joke, fun," she explained.

After this, she was asked to recall the names by which Mr O'Reilly referred to his wife. She said he normally called her "Rach" or "Rachel".

However, she revealed he used to call her other names also. "Wasp would be one," she said, adding: "or the words c**t."

Asked what she thought about these names Ms Pelley said "it wasn't a term he would use often".

Ms Pelley said she was aware that Mr O'Reilly and his wife had rows but that she thought they were "routine, run of the mill arguments."

Questioned about her conversations with Mr O'Reilly on the day of the murder, Ms Pelley again repeated that Mr O'Reilly did not speak to her about any arguments he had had with his wife.

At about 3.15 that afternoon, she found out that Mrs O'Reilly's dead body had been found.

She said she then phoned Mr O'Reilly. "He said to me that Rachel was dead - that he was with the police and 'I'll call you later'," she said.

Asked later to explain the reason why she thought Mr O'Reilly told her to say they were only having an affair, Ms Pelley said "because if it was a relationship it would be seen to give him a motive to kill Rachel".

Prosecuting counsel also asked her about Mr O'Reilly's appearance on the Late Late Showon 22nd October. She said she saw the show and that he spent the night with her afterwards.

Returning again to the subject of their telephone conversation the night before the murder, counsel asked Ms Pelley whether she could recall what was it about. She told him: "It was a general a 'good night' conversation- nothing specific."

Defence counsel Mr Patrick Gageby SC had no questions for Ms Pelley.

The trial before a jury of nine men and two women continues tomorrow.