Jury told of victim’s blunt force injuries
Bobby Ryan’s injuries ‘could have been caused by accident, traffic collision or assault’
Eoin Reynolds BOBBY Ryan suffered multiple injuries which could have been caused by an accident, road traffic collision or serious assault, the Central Criminal Court was told last Friday.
Before last week all that was known about the injuries sustained by Bobby Ryan was that he suffered blunt force trauma to the head, ribs and one leg.
Last week the court heard from Superintendent Patrick O’Callaghan that former Deputy State Pathologist Dr Khalid Jaber believed the multiple injuries he observed could have been caused in a number of ways, including accident, traffic collision or assault.
It was also revealed that Dr Jaber was not available to come to court to give evidence and, on the day Mr Ryan’s body was found, he was not willing to attend the scene.
His absence from the trial prompted gardai to enlist the help of other pathologists to review the work done by Dr Jaber.
Lorcan Staines SC, for the defence, has asked numerous garda witnesses if it was best practice to remove Bobby Ryan’s body from the tank without a pathologist present. Supt O’Callaghan revealed that the pathologist was contacted and, once they found out he wasn’t coming, they went ahead with the removal.
He defended the decisions made by gardai, telling Mr Staines that experienced detectives and a member of the technical bureau oversaw the removal. Supt O’Callaghan didn’t believe any forensic scientist would be able to work in the cramped conditions of the tank, which fire officers who removed the body could only enter wearing full body bio-hazard suits.
They were concerned about what might be in the tank and the potential health hazards for anyone entering without a protective suit.
When Mr Staines asked the witness about the deceased’s arm coming loose from the body, trial judge Justice Eileen Creedon had to warn members of the family present that this could be distressing and suggested they leave the court.
Supt O’Callaghan resumed his evidence saying he didn’t know if the arm came loose in the tank or when it was being removed. He first noticed it when the body was laid on a plastic sheet on the ground.
Since early in the trial the defence has focused on the presence of a woman’s brown hair clip found in the tank after Bobby Ryan’s remains had been removed.
Turning to this issue, Mr Staines wanted to know why the clip didn’t feature more prominently in the investigation. Supt O’Callaghan said he didn’t attach “a whole pile of significance” to it but he did ask Imelda Quirke, wife of the accused, Patrick Quirke, who denies the charge, if she recognised it.
Imelda Quirke, her maiden name Lowry, grew up on the farm at Fawnagowan, he explained. She was, Supt O’Callaghan said, one of several girls who grew up there and he suspected the clip could have fallen into the tank at any point since it was built in the late 1970s. Mrs Quirke did not recognise the clip.
The defence has also returned in its questioning to the moment a large slab of reinforced concrete which covered most of the tank was removed by a garda driving a digger.
Bobby Ryan’s remains were still in the tank at the time and Mr Staines wanted to know why none of the 15 or so gardai who were present saw fit to mention in their statements that the slab broke as it was removed.
Mr Staines has suggested that in breaking it would have released dust, debris, rocks and pebbles into the tank on top of the body below. Yet the book of evidence, more than 1,000 pages long, contains no reference to it, he pointed out.
Supt O’Callaghan said it wasn’t a significant event on the day. He and his colleagues just got on with the job, their next concern being whether the body could now be removed once the lid was off.
He denied that anyone was trying to hide the fact that the slab broke, adding that photographs of the broken slab were included in the evidence.
Mr Staines also wanted to know why Mary Lowry’s house was not searched in 2011, when Bobby Ryan went missing. Her farm was searched, as were farm buildings and slurry tanks on her land, but not her home, the last place Bobby Ryan had been seen before his disappearance.
She was, Supt O’Callaghan agreed, fully cooperative with the investigation, giving officers full access to the farm. “It just wasn’t done,” Supt O’Callaghan offered as explanation of why the house wasn’t included in the search. That may have been the last place Mr Ryan was seen, he said, but his van was found some distance away at Kilshane Woods.
Ms Justice Creedon warned the jury of six men and six women that the trial has attracted a lot of media attention but they must make their decision based only on what they hear in court.
She also reminded the media that the accused man has the presumption of innocence and asked journalists to be careful of how they report on the proceedings.
‘Fire officers who removed body had to wear full body bio-hazard suits to avoid health hazard’