A friend of Joe O'Reilly's was shocked by comments he made at his wife's funeral, a jury in the Central Criminal Court was told yesterday.
Mr O'Reilly (35), Lambay View, Baldarragh, The Naul, Co Dublin has pleaded not guilty to murdering Rachel O'Reilly, his 30-year-old wife and mother of their two children, at the family home on October 4th, 2004.
Fiona Slevin, a friend of both Joe and Rachel O'Reilly, said she was at the funeral reception on October 11th when she and the accused began talking about the murder weapon. She said he told her: "I don't know why they're searching the fields. It's in the water." She added: "I looked at him in shock."
She said he knew he had said something he should not have and he went on to explain that if he had committed the murder, he would have put the weapon in the water. "He said 'that would get rid of the DNA'," she added.
Under cross-examination by defence counsel Patrick Gageby SC, Ms Slevin denied she was confusing that conversation with one she had with Mr O'Reilly's brother when they discussed media reports of the murder.
However, she accepted she told gardaí about the comments on November 23rd and not one or two weeks after the funeral, as she had first thought.
Michelle Slattery, a co-worker of Mr O'Reilly's in an outdoor advertising business, gave evidence that on the day of the killing, the accused walked into the office at midday. She described his eyes as being red and puffy, as though he had been crying. When she remarked to him: "Jesus, you look like shit," he shrugged and said: "Ah, Jesus."
The court heard that Mr O'Reilly apologised to a garda for destroying forensic evidence around his wife's dead body. Paramedics and gardaí were giving evidence of arriving at the murder scene where they found the body with a severe head injury lying face down in a pool of blood. They described multiple blood splatterings on the walls, door frame and in the hallway.
Garda Thomas Cleary said he was among the first group of gardaí to arrive at the scene at 2.45pm. He said the kitchen was in a messy state, with chairs and drawers pulled out.
When he entered, family members were already in the house, and he therefore asked everyone present to leave so that evidence would not be destroyed.
When outside, he said Mr O'Reilly told him he arrived at the scene at 2.20pm and that he had moved a large box of books which had been beside the body.
He claimed Mr O'Reilly told him he had made contact with the body. He added: "He said I'm really sorry. I'm probably after ruining it on you."
Under cross-examination by Mr Gageby, Garda Cleary denied that after he'd made everyone leave the scene, Mr O'Reilly asked him if he could go back inside to get his jacket.
Det Garda Damien O'Connell gave evidence that when members of a Garda search team arrived at the house on October 9th, the accused told them they should look in the room adjoining the bedroom in which his wife had been found dead.
He said Mr O'Reilly told him he had dumbbells in that room and that one of them could have been used as the murder weapon.
Garda Nicola Sheerin said that on the day after the killing, she was part of a Garda team who found two bags in a drain beside a roadside ditch less than half-a-mile from the O'Reilly house. One of the items found was a camera bag with a travel tag marked: "O'Reilly - Santry".
Rachel O'Reilly's father, Jim Callaly, gave evidence that before the funeral, he and his wife wrote a letter to their daughter and left it in the coffin, and they invited others to do the same.
The trial continues today.