To almost everyone else the O'Reillys' marriage seemed successful
Happier times . . . Rachel O'Reilly on her wedding day.
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IT was Rachel Callaly's "mad personality and can-do attitude" that won the heart of her future husband - and killer - Joe.
Or at least these were the terms he would use to describe her in a letter he chillingly enclosed in her coffin.
The couple first met in 1992 when both worked in Arnott's department store in Dublin. He was 20, she was 18.
Both had entered the workplace without third level qualifications, but they shared a common desire to get on in the world through hard work. He started work for Oracle and then Microsoft, moving up through the ranks. Rachel started work in a solicitor's office.
They both enjoyed sport, with softball - a variant of baseball - being a favourite they shared. Rachel was so taken with softball that she was one of the organisers behind a record-breaking game devised to help our Lady's Hospital, Crumlin.
In addition, Rachel played hockey occasionally. In fact, she suffered a mild injury on he hockey pitch just days before her murder. Both were keen movie fans and in the early days of their courtship they would frequent the cinema a lot. When times were good, they had many pet names for each other. She was 'Rach' and 'Rachey'. He was 'Joefus' and 'hubby-wubby'.
They dated for six years before getting married in April 1997. Their honeymoon was in Kenya where they enjoyed two safaris.
Initially, they rented an apartment before buying a home in the north city suburb of Whitehall. Keen to give their children more space and a semi-rural environment, they bought a bungalow in the Naul, north Co Dublin, in 2002. Rachel cut her work in the solicitor's down to one day a week in order to look after her children and sold Tupperware and Avon cosmetics in order to supplement the family income. She was also an Avon lady, selling cosmetics to women in north Co Dublin. On the face of it, the couple had it all - a good marriage, two healthy children and a mortgage that their salaries had no trouble with. They were upwardly mobile and had a set of close friendships, although Rachel was easily the more outgoing of the two.
But strains in their marriage began to appear 18 months before her death - and shortly after the birth of their youngest son, Adam - when Joe started telling friends and family members that the relationship was in trouble.
In 2003, he embarked on an affair with professional golfer Barbara Hackett, a relationship he is thought to have kept secret from his wife - and his friends. It was only when he was interviewed by gardai about the murder that he admitted to this affair, but Barbara Hackett was not called to appear in court.
"In general our marriage was okay, we had our arguments, O'Reilly told gardai. "Rachel always wanted a daughter, I didn't. I loved our two boys and didn't see a reason to have another child."
But the relationship deteriorated to such an extent that they would sleep in separate bedrooms. O'Reilly told police that this was because he rose early for work and did not want to wake her, but the truth seem to lay with a deep seated resentment that he felt towards her.
The true extent of how far apart they had fallen would come to light in court when transcripts of emails between O'Reilly and his sister Ann were read out.
Frequently referring to her as a "c*nt", he alleged that she had mistreated their two children Luke and Adam. "Hopefully the [district nurse] will see her at her 'best' or else the state of the house that the lazy c*nt leaves it in," he wrote to Ann.
IN January 2004, nine months before Rachel was murdered, he started an affair with Nikki Pelley who had worked with him at outdoor advertising firm, Viacom. They had met at a function at the Barge pub, Portobello, and, she claims, started a sexual relationship some time later.
They would meet two or three times a week, with O'Reilly often staying at Pelley's house in Rathfarnham, south Dublin.
Five nights before Rachel's death, O'Reilly sent the following message to Pelley: "All your willies tucked up in bed, lights out, missing you. Sweet dreams my darling. Love you."
He had been anxious to keep his affair with Nikki Pelley secret, but even after he murdered his wife he continued the relationship.
He spent the night at Pelley's home after appearing on the Late Late Show to appeal for witnesses.
A month after her death, O'Reilly left a macabre message on Rachel's mobile. "I don't want to live without you and that's the truth. I miss you and love you. I just want to go back in time and say I love you. Sleep well and rest in peace, I have to get the boys ready now. I love you, I miss you. Chat later. Bye."
