Husband pleads for his wife’s killer to be banned from Co Kildare

The husband of a woman who was murdered has called for her killer to be banned for life from entering Co Kildare.

Kenneth O’Reilly was given a life sentence in 1997 for the murder of mother-of-three Joyce Quinn who is from Kildare town.

He thumbed a lift from her in Kildare town on January 23rd, 1996. Later on the Curragh Plains he raped her and stabbed her in the chest.

O'Reilly was sentenced to life in prison in October 1997 for the murder of Mrs Joyce, but no sexual assault charge was brought against him because the prosecution could not prove it was either rape or necrophilia.

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O’Reilly has spent the last 21 years in jail and was due for a parole review last month, but it was postponed because of a backlog.

O'Reilly was 22 when he murdered Mrs Quinn. She was 44 when she died. O'Reilly is now 45 and Mrs Quinn's husband Ray believes he is still a threat to the family.

He has pointed out that the couple's youngest daughter Lisa is married to a man from Milltown, Co Kildare, O'Reilly's home village.

“She visits her in-laws with her three children quite often. O’Reilly has never expressed any remorse for what happened. Indeed he did his utmost to mislead and thwart the gardaí during the investigation into Joyce’s death up to and including the murder trial.”

Precedent

Mr Quinn said there was precedent for a county ban once a murderer was released from jail including a man who was banned from a couple of midlands counties.

He said it was up to the Parole Board to decide if O'Reilly was a candidate for release, but his family had a reasonable request that he not be allowed to live in Co Kildare.

“The purpose of this crime was rape, murder was almost incidental to cover up the rape. O’Reilly was not charged with a sex crime. It was flippantly explained to me just before the trial ,‘we don’t know if your wife was dead or alive at the time, it could be rape or necrophilia, so we are not proceeding with that’,” Mr Quinn added.

“He drove back to Milltown, hid her car in the schoolyard and within minutes of the murder/rape calmly called to the school caretaker’s house to state that he had found his lost money .

"He went home, cleaned up and went to the local pub for drinks. His girlfriend joined him and then both went by taxi to Newbridge where they had a meal before returning to his girlfriend's house for the night. All of this was paid for by the money stolen from Joyce.

"Whether this guy who calmly premeditated a rape and murder poses a threat to the public if released is matter for the parole board. I merely want him kept out of County Kildare. "