Date set for appeal by Mr Moonlight murderer
AN appeal case taken by farmer Patrick Quirke against his conviction for the murder of Bobby Ryan, a DJ called Mr Moonlight, could last up to four days.
Lawyers for Quirke and the DPP appeared before a brief sitting of the Court of Appeal yesterday to discuss progress in the case.
The full appeal hearing is listed for a date in October.
However, the president of the Court of Appeal, Judge George Birmingham, expressed hope that the parties might be able to conduct the appeal in a shorter time frame than the three to four days currently anticipated.
The judge adjourned the matter for mention to next week to allow both sides consider each other’s submissions on the appeal.
Quirke, 50, of Breanshamore, Co. Tipperary, had denied murdering Mr Ryan, 52, a part-time DJ, who went missing on June 3, 2011, after leaving his girlfriend Mary Lowry’s house at about 6.30am. The body of Mr Ryan was subsequently found in an underground run-off tank on the farm owned by Ms Lowry and leased by Quirke at Fawnagown, 22 months later, in April 2013.
It was the prosecution’s case that Quirke murdered Mr Ryan so he could rekindle a love affair with Ms Lowry and that he subsequently ‘staged’ the discovery of Mr Ryan’s body after Ms Lowry tried to terminate his lease at Fawnagowan.
Quirke’s lawyers contended that the prosecution had failed to prove their case beyond mere suspicion. They pointed to ‘inconsistencies’ in Ms Lowry’s evidence, and claimed she was ‘not a reliable witness’.
It was heard during the trial that Quirke claimed his affair with Mary Lowry resumed in August 2011 and that the following month, they stayed in the Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore, Co. Waterford, something Ms Lowry said she couldn’t remember.
A jury at the Central Criminal Court found Quirke guilty of Mr Ryan’s murder by a ten-to-two majority verdict. The farmer was given a mandatory life sentence by Judge Eileen Creedon.
‘Staged’ discovery of Mr Ryan’s body