Eamonn Lillis, jailed for killing his wife Celine Cawley, has had his planned release from prison cancelled after becoming involved in a standoff with the Irish Prison Service.
He was being freed on Friday, one day early, on a temporary release order. But he refused to consent to the move in the morning, opting to consider the matter and possibly agree to it later in the day.
However, on Friday afternoon the prison service cancelled the temporary release order, taking the decision on the timing of his being freed out of his hands.
The 57-year-old father of one and former television production company executive will now stay in jail until Saturday, when he must leave because his sentence will have expired.
Because the Irish Prison Service does not release prisoners at weekends, Lillis was to be freed one day early and was set to walk free at around 9am on Friday.
His first 24 hours of freedom were to be covered by a temporary release order until tomorrow, when his release would have become full at the expiry of his sentence.
Like all prisoners being temporarily released, Lillis was required by law to sign a consent form agreeing to be freed 24 hours early.
On Friday morning as he was about to leave jail he refused to sign the paperwork, apparently because of the large media presence outside Wheatfield Prison, west Dublin, where he has been serving his sentence.
And while it was still open to him to sign the paperwork later on Friday, the prison service’s cancelled the release order in the afternoon, which means he must stay in prison until Saturday when his sentence officially ends.
He will now be freed any time between midnight on Friday and around 10am on Saturday, with special arrangements to facilitate his release on a Saturday being put in place.
He is expected to travel immediately to Dublin Airport and depart the jurisdiction. He has contacts in both the UK and France.
He has no choice but to be freed at any time of the prison service’s choosing from midnight on Friday irrespective of the number of journalists, photographers and cameramen outside.
Some of the media outside the prison on Friday had been there through Thursday night in the event Lillis was released in the early hours.
He had recently spent time in the Shelton Abbey open prison in Co Wicklow in preparation for his release and had also enjoyed brief periods of temporary release.
Lillis had spent some of his time in jail taking foreign language lessons and attending art classes, where he honed his painting skills.
He was jailed for six years and 11 months in February 2010. A model prisoner according to sources, he was entitled to remission of 25 per cent. He has served just under five years and two months.
Lillis has been involved in an acrimonious legal dispute with his wife’s family and his daughter after the division of the family home, which has been sold, and the television production company run by the couple.
He was also entitled to a pension payment from the TV production firm and proceeds from the sale of an investment property and bonds.
Lillis, who has one adult daughter, killed his wife Ms Cawley during a row at the family home on Windgate Road in the north Dublin suburb of Howth in December 2008.
Originally from Terenure in south Dublin, he was charged with murder but he was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter after the jury accepted he had not intended to kill his wife.
Ms Cawley (46) died in hospital at 10.56am on Monday, December 15th, after suffering blunt force trauma to the head.
Lillis initially told gardaí an intruder was attacking his wife in the back garden of their home when he had returned from leaving his daughter to school.
However, the investigating team suspected from the outset he was the killer and searched the house for a number of days. On the third day of searching they found a suitcase in the attic with a set of his clothes covered in his wife’s blood inside it.
He persisted with his account he had disturbed an intruder attacking his wife, saying the attacker knocked him out and escaped. Lillis supplied the name of a local man as a suspect.
It was not until the first day of a three-week trial that he conceded there was no intruder.
He claimed after coming home from leaving his daughter to school, his wife argued with him over cleaning up after their dog and leaving bird feed out. He said they has tussled on the decking in the back garden and his wife had banged her head on the window ledge and fallen twice during what he described as a heated and physical exchange.
He claimed when they both fell onto the decking Ms Cawley bit his finger so hard he thought she would bite it off. He said he pushed her head away and she banged it on an area of decking and there was a brick beside her.
Lillis claimed the argument stopped and they agreed they would tell their daughter they had sustained their injuries when an intruder attacked them.
However, he said he noticed blood on his wife’s head. He said he rested her head on his lap, but she slipped into unconsciousness and he was unable to revive her.
It emerged he had changed his clothes and hidden the bloodstained clothing before he rang for an ambulance for his injured wife.
During the trial, the Deputy State Pathologist Dr Michael Curtis said moderate force would have caused the three wounds found on Ms Cawley’s head. These would have resulted in blood loss and asphyxia. Her obesity and enlarged heart were contributory factors in her death, he added.
He said she might not have died if medical help had been summoned more quickly.
Lillis was having an affair with his masseuse Jean Treacy but insisted that relationship was not the reason why he had argued with his wife on the morning she lost her life.
