Nikki Pelley lover of killer Joe O’Reilly stands by him with visit to prison
This is the lover of wife-killer Joe O’Reilly visiting him at the Midlands Prison as he spends his sixth Christmas behind bars.
Nikki Pelley (42) has remained loyal to the murderer since his conviction, and continues to make the regular trips to the jail for her weekend visits to prisoner 42807, despite knowing he may not be released before 2024.
Pelley had a nine-month affair with O’Reilly before he murdered his wife Rachel in October 2004.
During his 20-day trial, O’Reilly denied any involvement in the killing.
Gardai believe he beat Rachel to death with a dumbbell.
Since O’Reilly was caged for life for the evil murder, Nikki has remained in a relationship with him and is a regular visitor to the jail in Portlaoise, Co Laois.
O’Reilly has few friends among inmates. Instead, he spends most of his day working out in the prison gym or reading books.
Advertising executive Nikki, who lives in Rathfarnham, gave evidence at the trial.
She revealed that on the night O’Reilly infamously appeared on The Late Late Show to appeal to his wife’s killer to come forward, he later stayed overnight at her home.
Nikki explained that she had met O’Reilly, whom she had worked with, in January of 2004 at the Barge Pub in Portobello.
They began texting and emailing each other and by April or May 2004 they had begun a sexual relationship.
Despite being one of Ireland’s most infamous killers, jail sources say O’Reilly’s behaviour behind bars has been perfect.
“He never causes any trouble and he pretty much keeps to himself. Joe lives for visits from Nikki,” said a jail insider.
Alcohol used to induce heart attack
Doctors have saved a patient’s life by killing off part of his heart with neat alcohol. Medics used the rare treatment to induce a controlled heart attack.
Cardiologist Dr Tom Johnson said his patient Ronald Aldom would never have left the Bristol Heart Institute if his condition could not been treated.
The 77-year-old was suffering from a life threatening heart rhythm called ventricular tachycardia (VT) – which occurred as a result of a previous heart attack.
A team of surgeons tried to treat the condition using standard procedures but were unable to safely perform them.
The team decided to treat Mr Aldom, from Portishead near Bristol, with “ethanol ablation”.
The treatment has only been conducted a handful of times in the UK to treat VT, Dr Johnson said.
The procedure involves passing a catheter to the heart from the groin which identifies which part of the heart the dangerous rhythms are coming from.
A tiny balloon is then blown up in the heart artery supplying that area and a small amount of absolute alcohol is injected into the artery to produce a small controlled heart attack.
This kills the area of the heart muscle causing the problem allowing the heart’s rhythm to return to normal.
Mr Aldom said he was admitted to hospital after his implantable defibrillator (ICD) gave him a “thunderstorm of shocks”.
Dr Johnson, an interventional cardiologist, said: “Mr Aldom presented a couple of months ago with this life-threatening type rhythm disturbance, VT, which was related to the damage done to the heart – the scar associated with his previous heart attack.
“The defibrillator is there to try and prevent you from dropping dead in the community – they listen out for the heart doing unusual things – if your heart is doing something unusual like going very, very fast, firstly it will try and pace you out of that rhythm – it will try and suppress the activity within the heart.
“If that fails it will actually illicit a shock of energy across the heart which hopefully straightens things out and puts you back into a normal rhythm.
“It is potentially a rather difficult thing for a patient to live with because there is that threat that it could go off and actually when it does go off it is like being kicked in the chest.”
Mr Aldom added: “I was admitted to the Bristol Heart Institute after what doctors described as a thunderstorm of shocks from my ICD.
“I had an ICD fitted about ten years ago after I had a double by-pass operation at the hospital. The device gives my heart a shock when the rhythm becomes abnormal; however, I had about 30 shocks and knew there was something wrong.”
Dr Johnson said the team of medics tried to treat Mr Aldom’s irregular heartbeat with medication and “electrical ablation” to try and burn away – or kill off – the area of muscle which was generating the irregular heartbeats.
But they were unable to perform the procedures – so treating they decided to treat Mr Aldom with ethanol ablation.
“The alternative, unfortunately, was that he was going to die from his irregular heart rhythm,” he said.
Dr Johnson has previously performed the procedure for patients with Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy - a condition in which the heart muscle becomes thick – but this was his first use of the procedure to treat VT.
“The patient is doing tremendously well and is doing and is much better,” he said.
“He wasn’t going to leave hospital unless something was done. There was no other option.”
Mr Aldom added: “After the procedure I was out of hospital within about three days.
“I think it’s wonderful that the doctors tried everything to help me. If they hadn’t have done this I wouldn’t be here now.”
Santa’s on his way? Limerick girl finds his Wellington in a garden hedge
Astronomers are alerting sky watchers to be on the lookout for evidence of what appears to be meteor showers.
A NASA spokesperson says these trails of light fragments travelling at speed across the sky are in fact hundreds of small gift-shaped objects hurtling through the atmosphere on Santa Claus’s sleigh.
It follows hundreds of sightings of reported meteor trails across the world, from the Galapagos Islands to Portlaoise.
Satellite trackers have revealed that Mr Claus has just left Mongolia and is heading towards Russia, with 1.8 million presents delivered so far.
Meanwhile, Santa’s welly has been found in Limerick.
The size 14 black welly which fell off Mr Claus’s left foot during a patch of thunder earlier today was located by a small girl in a garden hedge in Moyross, County Limerick.
The size 14 black welly which fell off Mr Claus’s left foot during a patch of thunder earlier today was located by a small girl in a garden hedge in Moyross, County Limerick.
She handed it in to the post office, so An Post has arranged for an express delivery to intercept with the sleigh – currently flying over Bangladesh – and return the Wellington boot.
Mrs Claus has thanked children in Ireland for looking out for the welly.
New lending deal by banks ‘will help secure EU funds’
THE Government believes getting the banks to agree a new deal on lending and mortgages will help the case for the release of funds from the new EU bailout fund.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny expects a deal on the country’s crippling bank debt – from AIB, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB – by summer. He’s also vowing there’ll be a separate deal by March on the massive Anglo Irish Bank debt.
At the same time, the Government is going to force AIB and Bank of Ireland to set specific targets for dealing with distressed mortgages and lending to business and house buyers.
Government sources say the two issues of a domestic bank deal and an EU debt deal are intertwined. They are trying to pin down the banks’ role in the economic recovery – to help prove that any funding from the EU bailout fund will be used wisely.
“All of this is about moving beyond the legacy (of banking problems in the past),” a coalition source said.
Last week, Mr Kenny confirmed the Government had a June deadline in mind for a clear signal on the level of the writedown of debt from the new European Stability Mechanism.
“By June, following the decision of the European Council, we expect agreement on the mechanics and the modalities of reducing the burden that we took on – or that the Irish taxpayer took on – from the recapitalisation of growing concerned banks that is Bank of Ireland, AIB and PTSB,” he said.
Confidence
“So while an actual transaction may not be possible until 2014, a clear signal on how this is going to be done will certainly strengthen market confidence and lower interest rates for Ireland as we seek to exit the programme.”
In the new year, the Government will be calling in the banks to tease out their plans for the coming years, ahead of the end of the state bank guarantee in March.
AIB and Bank of Ireland will be forced to set specific targets for dealing with distressed mortgages and lending to business and house buyers.
The coalition is also to talk to Permanent TSB about its plans now its future is no longer in doubt.
The banks are due to exit the state bank guarantee next year.
Meanwhile, Mr Kenny is revamping a cabinet committee to hold the banks to account. The Government wants specific targets on lending of new money to businesses – not just rollover finance; approval of mortgages for home buyers; and the numbers of mortgage arrears cases being dealt with.
As well as the Taoiseach, Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore, Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Public Spending Minister Brendan Howlin, he is bringing in Jobs Minister Richard Bruton, Social Protection Minister Joan Burton and Justice Minister Alan Shatter to scrutinise the banks.
Mortgage row farmer barricades family in home for Christmas from Sheriffs
No go 
A FARMER and his five children whose home is under the threat of repossession will be barricaded into their farm for the Christmas holidays.
On August 16, Seamus Sherlock, pictured, blocked the main driveway at his farm in Feohanagh, Co Limerick, after he was served with a repossession notice by Bank of Scotland because of outstanding mortgage repayments.
More than 125 days later, neighbours and supporters of the Sherlock family have maintained a round-the-clock vigil to guard the 50-acre property.
Mr Sherlock and his five children – Dermot (22), Bernadette (19), Briget (18), JJ (15) and Mary Kate (13) – continue to live at their home.
“I have no choice but to stick it out. It is very simple, I have nowhere to go,” he said.
“I’m very proud of my children – they are standing their ground here with me.”
The farmer says he is more than willing to pay off his debt of €400,000-plus, including interest.
“The bank has not come back to us at all. We have a five-figure sum lodged with the family solicitor – we just want to pay our way,” he said.
“We are not looking for anything for free. I have 10 years left on my mortgage. If I got another nine years (from the bank) we could pay our way.”
A donated log cabin equipped with beds, mattresses and heating forms the sentry post for those keeping vigil.
“We cannot thank people enough – I can’t get over the support we are receiving,” he added.
A bank spokesperson said: “We do not comment on our banking relationships with our customers.”
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