Mary Lowry is charged over crash that killed motorcyclist, 51
Ex of murdered DJ Mr Moonlight ‘paid undue care while driving’, it is alleged
THE woman at the centre of the ‘Mr Moonlight’ love triangle murder trial has been charged with careless driving causing death.
The Courts Service has confirmed that Mary Lowry, 56, of Green Road, Dundrum, Co. Tipperary, has been charged with driving her car ‘without due care and attention’.
It is alleged this caused the
Biker and son were taken to hospital
death of Patrick ‘Flags’ Connolly, a 51-year-old motorcyclist from Skehennarinky, Co. Tipperary.
The deceased was reportedly on a charity bike outing at the time of the tragic incident.
He had been riding the vehicle with his son as a pillion passenger and both were taken to hospital following the accident. Mr Connolly died five days later.
According to the charge before the court, the incident took place on December 28, 2021, at Springhouse, Bansha, Co. Tipperary.
Ms Lowry’s driving was said to be contrary to the Road Traffic Act, which states that a person shall not drive a vehicle in a public place without due care and attention. She was last in court over this matter on November 16 in Thurles, and will appear before Nenagh District Court on January 25. She has yet to state whether she intends to enter a guilty or a not-guilty plea to the charge.
If convicted, Ms Lowry is facing a maximum penalty of two years in prison and/or a fine not exceeding €10,000.
Ms Lowry gave evidence for several days in early 2019 as a witness in the murder trial over the death of her boyfriend, part-time DJ Bobby Ryan, whose stage name was Mr Moonlight.
That trial heard how a search was launched after the 52-year-old failed to turn up for work on the morning of June 3, 2011, after spending the night at Ms Lowry’s home in Fawnagown, Co. Tipperary. His body was not discovered until April 2013, when it was found in a water tank on Ms Lowry’s farm, which her former partner Patrick Quirke had been renting.
Quirke, of Breanshamore, Co. Tipperary, was charged with the murder of Mr Ryan.
The prosecution alleged he carried out the killing so he could rekindle a love affair with Ms Lowry, having been brokenhearted when she left him for Mr Ryan. It also claimed he then staged the finding of the badly decomposed body, shortly before his lease on the farm was due to be terminated.
Quirke was found guilty of murder, and is currently awaiting the result of a Supreme Court appeal over his conviction, having claimed that a search of his home by gardaí was based on an unlawful warrant. Evidence before the jury taken from that search included the results of a trawl of his computer, which found that he had searched for information and YouTube videos about the decomposition of bodies.