Garda only ‘saw hay bales’ on tank where body found
Mr Moonlight trial hears how garda who conducted early search submitted new statement this week
A GARDA involved in the search for missing DJ Bobby Ryan eight years ago saw ‘ten to 15’ silage bales at the location of the run-off tank where his remains were later found, a court has heard.
Garda Tom Finnan said he only realised on Monday, after seeing an aerial picture of the Lowry farmlands, that he had incorrectly believed the body was found in a large open slurry pit on the farm.
He told the Central Criminal Court that the realisation prompted him to make a new statement describing how he had seen round silage bales at the tank where the DJ’s body was eventually found.
Patrick Quirke, 50, of Breanshamore, Co. Tipperary, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Bobby Ryan, a part-time DJ going by the name Mr Moonlight, on a date between June 3, 2011, and April 2013.
He is on trial at the Central Criminal Court.
Ryan went missing in June 2011 and his body was found in April 2013 in an underground run-off tank near a milk parlour on Mary Lowry’s farm in Fawnagown, Co. Tipperary, 22 months after he went missing.
Garda Finnan was not at the scene when the body was recovered but was involved in the initial search team that combed the farmlands at Fawnagowan in June 2011.
He said that this Monday he was having coffee with garda colleagues in the court building when he asked Sergeant Cathal Godfrey if he could see an aerial photograph of the farm.
He told defence counsel Bernard Condon SC that he asked to see the photograph because he wasn’t happy with what he previously thought was the site of where the body was found.
Mr Condon said the witness had earlier told the court when the jury was not present that rather than asking Sgt Godfrey for the photograph, he said that Sgt Godfrey showed him the photograph to refresh his memory. The witness said: ‘I wouldn’t say Sgt Godfrey showed it to me. It was on the table.’
He accepted that he had said previously he was shown the photograph. He had thought the body was found in an open slurry pit behind one of the sheds but became ‘unhappy’ with this after he saw TV news footage, which showed the body to have been found in an underground tank in a different area.
He told the court he had been mistaken about the location of the body because someone in the investigation team told him it was found in a slurry tank and he presumed that referred to the large slurry pit.
He accepted that he had looked inside this large pit during the 2011 search and saw nothing, but that the body was discovered ‘two years later’.
He said he had not seen the run-off tank from the dairy farm where the body was actually found before it was pointed out to him on the aerial photograph on Monday of this week.
When Garda Finnan saw the correct location of the discovery of the body, he remembered seeing between ten and 15 round bales of silage covered in black plastic in that location.
Mr Condon asked Garda Finnan whether he agreed that it was inappropriate for gardaí to discuss their statements in advance of giving evidence in a trial. Garda Finnan said it would not be correct but added that gardaí were not discussing their evidence, they were looking at a photograph.
‘There wasn’t anything else discussed,’ he said of the coffee with garda colleagues on Monday. He also said the search was carried out eight years ago and seeing the photograph helped put things in perspective.
Garda Finnan rejected a sug-
‘I just give my evidence’
gestion by counsel that he was ‘extraordinarily confused’ about the location of the hay bales and denied that he saw some ‘advantage’ to himself in suggesting bales were placed in the area of the tank.
He said: ‘It’s no advantage to me. I just gave my evidence.’
Under re-examination, Garda Finnan told prosecution counsel Michael Bowman SC that there was nothing organised between gardaí at the coffee shop and they did not share their statements.
The witness agreed that members would not collude to ‘dream up’ evidence.
Earlier, the court heard evidence from Garda John O’Connor, who said he was involved with several other gardaí in the search at Fawnagowan on June 7, 2011.
They searched the sheds first, he said, and then split up into two teams to search the farms and ditches. They found nothing of interest, he told prosecution counsel David Humphries, and if they had they would have brought it to the attention of their superior and, if it was important enough, to the attention of a scenes of crime investigator.
The trial continues.