‘SOMEBODY OPENED TANK 11 DAYS BEFORE DJ’S BODY WAS FOUND’
Trial told run-off tank was accessed a week before gardaí were called
THE underground tank containing Bobby Ryan’s decomposing remains was opened 11 days before Patrick Quirke said he discovered the body, the Mr Moonlight murder trial has heard.
A forensic expert told the trial an insect infestation of Mr Ryan’s remains took place a few weeks before murder accused Mr Quirke reported the discovery of the body to gardaí, on April 30, 2013.
Dr John Manlove, a forensic scientist who specialises in the study of insects, told jurors yesterday that blowfly larvae found on Mr Ryan were all at the same stage of development, and indicated that they had infested the body at least 11 days prior to the discovery.
Earlier, a senior garda told the trial that when he saw Mr Ryan’s body in the tank, he believed the deceased
was either murdered and placed there or that he was assaulted and died in the tank.
In evidence on the flies observed on Mr Ryan, Dr Manlove told the court he concluded the tank had been opened more than a week before April 30, the day Mr Quirke reported the discovery to gardaí, ‘as access must have been provided to flies weeks before this date’.
Mr Quirke, 50, of Breanshamore, Co. Tipperary, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Bobby Ryan, 52, a DJ known as Mr Moonlight, on a date between June 3, 2011, and April 2013.
The trial has heard that Mr Ryan’s body was discovered by Mr Quirke in an underground run-off tank on Mary Lowry’s farm almost two years after he went missing. The trial has also heard Ms Lowry was in a relationship with Mr Ryan at the time of his disappearance in 2011 and had previously had an affair with married Mr Quirke, to whom she leased the farm in question.
Dr Manlove – a specialist in forensic entomology, which uses the life cycle of insects to help answer questions about suspicious deaths – told the court that he was contacted by gardaí in 2014 to help with the investigation into Mr Ryan’s death.
His main objective was to ‘establish when insect infestation may have commenced’, he said. Specifically, his aim was to determine whether this happened in 2011 or 2013.
From his examination of a single fly larva and from looking at photographs of the body after it was removed from the tank, he was able to estimate its age and stage in the life cycle. In a report compiled for the prosecution, he identified the common blowfly of the Calliphoridae family.
These flies, he said, have a sense of smell that would ‘embarrass a sniffer dog’ and can identify rotting flesh long before a human would notice it. They then lay their eggs, usually in orifices or open wounds, and when the eggs hatch, the larvae use the corpse as a food source.
The insect that was retrieved from the body was a third-stage larva, as were the larvae he identified in postmortem photographs. At this stage, he said, he would expect the larvae to leave the body to begin their metamorphosis into flies.
He said the infestation observed was ‘at least 11 days’ old and ‘quite possibly more’.
Dr Manlove said an engineer’s report he was shown stated that the tank would be perfectly sealed by two concrete slabs that the accused said he removed on the day he found the body. The engineer’s report stated, he said, that once muck and cow waste were placed over the slabs, this would create a ‘perfect seal’ making it impossible for flies to get in or out.
The entomologist therefore concluded that the first time the tank was opened was not on April 30, 2013, when Mr Quirke said he opened it, but some weeks before that.
Otherwise, he said, ‘flies could not have gained entry.’
The fly infestation did not happen on the day the body was found nor was it a longer infestation, which would have led to a greater level of decomposition, the court heard. The small number of larvae and lack of other insects indicated the body wasn’t exposed for a long period, he added. This, he said, suggested the tank had been sealed until March or early April 2013.
Under cross-examination by Lorcan Staines SC, for the defence, Dr Manlove agreed that vital DNA evidence can be lost when a body is transferred from where it is found. He also said that had it been requested, he would have attended at the postmortem the previous year.
Mr Staines said the jury would hear that Mr Quirke told gardaí that there had been a water leak into the tank on around March 11 and 12, 2013, and that thousands of litres of water had flowed from the leak.
Assuming that it could have caused a hole into the tank big enough for flies to enter, Dr Manlove agreed the suggested time frame for such a leak could match with his assessment of the timing of the fly infestation.
Earlier, a senior garda who attended the scene after the discovery of a body told jurors that when he looked into the tank, he thought Mr Ryan had either been murdered and put in the tank or assaulted and left there to die, a jury has heard.
‘I believed he had been murdered and placed in the tank or he had been placed in the tank as a result of a serious assault and died in the tank,’ Superintendent Patrick O’Callaghan told the court.
Supt O’Callaghan said he received a call on April 30, 2013, and went to Mary Lowry’s farm
‘They’d embarrass a sniffer dog’
at Fawnagowan, Co. Tipperary.
When he arrived at the scene, Patrick Quirke and his wife Imelda were sitting on a small wall between the front yard of Ms Lowry’s house and the tank where the remains were found.
One of the flagstones over the tank was ‘slightly ajar’ and a pipe was stuck into the hole, he noted. It was attached to a tanker or slurry spreader, which was attached to a tractor.
He said he looked in and initially saw nothing. He then got down on his knees and lowered his head in and could see the outline of a body. With the aid of a torch he brought with him, he could see a clearer view, he told the trial.
‘As a result of what I saw, I believe that the person in the tank was Bobby Ryan,’ he said.
‘I believe that he had been murdered and placed in the tank or he had been placed in the tank as a result of a serious assault and died in the tank.’
Supt O’Callaghan said he requested that the scene be preserved. He then called to Ms Lowry’s house and told her ‘exactly what was going on – that the scene was now preserved, and I asked her to leave the scene, which she did’, he told the court.
He said he had given her some time to ‘collect her bits and pieces’ and that she was ‘more than willing’ to comply.
Garda Conor Ryan pulled the tractor, trailer and pipe away from the scene and released the fluid, Supt O’Callaghan said.
He told the court a discussion took place on how best to remove the body from the tank. It was decided that they would lift the roof off. The body was then taken from the tank, initially placed on the ground, before being put in a body bag and then removed to University Hospital Waterford.
Under cross-examination, Supt O’Callaghan told Mr Staines SC that he went back to the station and described what he saw at the scene in his notebook. Not every garda at the scene takes notes, he said, adding: ‘If everyone takes notes, nothing would be done. You take notes as best you can.’
‘Not every garda at scene takes notes’