Pat Kenny recalls infamous TV appearance of twisted Joe O'Reilly on 20th anniversary of Rachel O'Reilly's murder
Mother-of-two Rachel was brutally bludgeoned to death by her husband Joe at their home in Naul, in north Co Dublin on October 4, 2004 in what was one of the most notorious cases in the country
Pat Kenny has recalled the infamous TV appearance on The Late Late Show of twisted killer Joe O’Reilly - on the 20th anniversary of Rachel O’Reilly’s murder - saying there was a "little malaise about the whole thing."
Mother-of-two Rachel was brutally bludgeoned to death by her husband Joe at their home in Naul, in north Co Dublin on October 4, 2004 in what was one of the most notorious cases in the country.
Rachel’s devastated mother Rose made the shocking discovery of her body in a bedroom of the home.
READ MORE - Family of Rachel Callaly hope 'psychotic' Joe O'Reilly is never released - and mark 20th anniversary
READ MORE - Rachel Callaly's brother brands killer Joe O'Reilly's progress behind bars 'meaningless' without confession
Evil Joe had staged the crime as a burglary but phone calls he made throughout that day would lead to his alibi being unravelled and being found guilty of the brutal killing.
The beast was jailed for life in 2007 and remains behind bars.
Now, 20 years on, veteran broadcaster Pat Kenny recalls the infamous interview the sicko gave when he appeared on The Late Late Show with Rachel’s heartbroken mother Rose Callaly to appeal for information.
"There are a few things I recall about that interview," Pat told The Irish Mirror.
"One was the way he sat on the couch at the other end from Rose. He was leaning away from her and that looked very odd to me.
"His body language was strange. When you’ve a couch full of people, particularly people who are united in grief and distressed, you would imagine they’d be almost hugging each other.
"The other aspect of it was that our hospitality host noticed him very ostentatiously taking a pill, as if for his nerves, but he was making it obvious. And the host said it to me immediately after the show. She said to me ‘That was very odd.'
"He was making sure, she felt, that he was seen taking it," the Newstalk presenter said.
Pat said another bizarre thing that "raised an alarm bell" with him was when killer Joe said he knew there was nothing missing from the house apart from some towels.
"I am reasonably okay around the house but I would never know whether towels are in the wash or on the line," said Pat.
"As a man looking at a man saying this I just thought ‘That’s odd.’
"But I couldn’t say that I believed and knew emphatically that he did kill Rachel. But talk about a cold-blooded planned killing.
"Another thing I found odd was that he left straight after the show and we know now he went to his girlfriend Nicola Pelley that night, which emerged later in the court case."
Pat also dismissed a rumour that members of An Garda Siochana were in the audience on the night of the appeal.
"There was some story going around that gardai were in the audience. They weren’t. There was no way they were infiltrated deliberately by us into the audience. That didn’t happen. There was speculation about that," said Pat.
"I’m always careful not to say ‘Ah I knew at the time,’ because I didn’t but there was a little malaise about the whole thing.
"And obviously my thoughts are with Rose and now Jim is gone and Rachel’s sister Ann, who was there on the night of the show as well. She didn’t have much time for Joe and that was kind of obvious."
Earlier, Rose told this paper that she strongly feels that the killer should never be granted freedom.
"The more I think about him trying to get out, the more angry I feel at him. Thank God he’s not part of my life at all. I think of the girls every day. He doesn’t contaminate my thoughts. I just don’t want him to get any freedom," she said.
O’Reilly is currently being considered for a third time for parole - despite never admitting his guilt in the murder of his wife.
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