Love triangle trial: Murder accused found ex lover's response 'intriguing'
A farmer accused of murdering his love rival told gardaí he had a "hunch" about what happened to DJ Bobby 'Mr Moonlight' Ryan and found the things the deceased's girlfriend told him "strange" and "intriguing".
In interviews following the discovery of Mr Ryan's remains, Patrick Quirke also told gardai that Mary Lowry, Mr Quirke's former lover and then girlfriend of the deceased, had a "couldn't care less attitude" about the disappearance of her boyfriend.
Mr Quirke, 50, of Breanshamore, Co Tipperary has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Ryan, a part-time DJ going by the name Mr Moonlight, on a date between June 3, 2011, and April 2013.
Mr Ryan's body was found in a run-off tank on the farm leased by the accused and owned by Ms Lowry at Fawnagown, Tipperary in April 2013.
The prosecution claims that Mr Quirke murdered Mr Ryan so that he could get back with Ms Lowry, 52, with whom the accused had previously had an affair.
On April 30, 2013 gardai were alerted by Mr Quirke's wife Imelda to the presence of a body in a tank on Ms Lowry's farm.
Inspector David Buckley told prosecuting counsel Michael Bowman SC that he met Mr Quirke at the scene and asked him to accompany him to Tipperary Garda Station to make a cautioned voluntary statement. Mr Quirke agreed to go and did not want to speak to a solicitor.
In the interview, Mr Quirke detailed how he found the body, saying he was trying to empty a slurry tank and needed more water as the slurry was too thick.
An open tank that he would usually draw water from was empty but, he said, he knew there was water in the underground tank beside the milking parlour.
He had not opened this tank since 2008, he said, but he knew it was there because the previous owner of the farm, Martin Lowry, told him about it.
Covering the tank were two concrete slabs so he prised one of them aside using a shovel and put a suction pipe through the gap to draw whatever water was there.
As the water was being sucked up he noticed what he thought was a plastic dummy or an inflatable doll in the tank.
He turned off the pump and pulled off the second slab, which he said was easier to move. He said: "I could see clearly it was a body."
He was "shocked" and phoned his wife Imelda who arrived, confirmed it was a body and phoned her friend Garda Tom Neville.
Garda Buckley put it to the accused that he was "fairly clean for a man doing a dirty job". The accused replied that he was "only getting into it" when he made the discovery.
On the day that Mr Ryan disappeared, Mr Quirke said he was on the farm at about 8.40 that morning to let two bulls in with his cows.
He was going on a family holiday that day and left a short time later. He said he didn't see anyone at the tank, adding: "It was a case of get in and get out."
He said he was not jealous of Bobby Ryan and didn't take issue with the relationship he had with Ms Lowry.
He said he had to "take it on the chin" that she had left him for Mr Ryan. He denied ever having heated words with Mr Ryan and said he chose to meet him and Ms Lowry socially, something he wouldn't have done if he had a problem.
When Gda Buckley asked him if he knew that the body was in the tank all along he said: "No. These are nice questions now lads."
He denied having any role in Mr Ryan's body being in the tank and said the only things he knew about Mr Ryan's disappearance were the things Ms Lowry told him, like how she couldn't be clear about whether it took ten minutes or two minutes for Mr Ryan's van to leave her driveway the morning of his disappearance.
He also asked how she found Mr Ryan's van so quickly later that day in the car park leading into Kilshane Woods.
He wondered why, when she was looking for Mr Ryan, she did not travel along a route he would normally have taken but instead drove to the local beauty spot where she found the van.
The deceased's daughter Michelle Ryan has previously told the trial that it was her idea to travel to Kilshane Woods as she had a "terrible feeling" she was going to find her dad's van in a woods.
Mr Quirke also wondered, he said, about how she saw Mr Ryan's van as it would not have been visible from the road.
"I found it strange," he said and later said he found it "intriguing". She had a "couldn't care less attitude about it," he added and recalled an incident where he urged her to go to gardai with information but she didn't.
He added: "I asked questions and like everyone else I had a hunch what happened. Everyone had notions he was attacked. Did he leave for Spain? I asked questions and I thought the answers strange and I read too much into it."
The trial continues in front of Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury of six men and six women.
