Slurry tank was opened weeks before accused said he found DJ’S body Insect expert tells murder trial flies indicate air exposure
THE tank containing Bobby Ryan’s remains was opened weeks before the man accused of his murder said he found his body, an insect expert said yesterday.
Dr John Manlove, a forensic entomologist, told the murder trial of 50-year-old farmer Patrick Quirke he saw common blow fly larvae in the deceased’s chest cavity and on his back.
He said they were all at the same stage of development and indicated they had infested the body at least 11 days prior to the discovery.
The small number of larvae and lack of other insects indicated the body was not exposed for a long period, he added at the Central Criminal Court.
Dr Manlove said an engineer’s report stated the tank would be perfectly sealed by two concrete slabs the accused said he removed before finding the body.
He added the report stated once muck and cow waste were placed over the slabs it would make it impossible for flies to get in or out.
The entomologist therefore concluded the first time the tank was opened was not on April 30, 2013, when Quirke told gardai he opened it, but some weeks before that.
The accused, of Breanshamore, Co Tipperary, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Ryan, a part-time DJ going by the name Mr Moonlight.
AFFAIR
Mr Ryan went missing on June 3, 2011, after leaving his girlfriend’s home at around
6.30am.
His body was found in an underground run-off tank on the farm leased by the accused at Fawnagown, Co Tipperary, in April 2013.
The prosecution claims
Quirke murdered Mr Ryan so he could rekindle an affair with
Mary Lowry, 52, the deceased’s girlfriend.
Dr Manlove told the court he was contacted by gardai in 2014 to help with the investigation.
Using a single insect larva retrieved from the scene and photographs of the body after it was removed, he identified the common blow fly of the Calliphoridae family.
The 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 lay their eggs, usually in orifices or open wounds, and when they hatch the larvae use the corpse as food.
The insect retrieved from the body was a third-stage larva as were those he
Bobby Ryan disappeared in June 2011 Forensics at scene in 2013 identified in postmortem photographs. At this stage, he said he would expect the larvae to leave the body to begin their metamorphosis into flies.
The witness agreed with Lorcan Staines for the defence that best practice for forensic scientists is to examine bodies at the scene before they have been moved.
As he was not at the scene he could not say whether the larvae were alive or dead when the body was removed. The lawyer also said the jury will hear Quirke told gardai water from a leaking pipe had flowed into the tank for two days in March 2013.
The witness agreed if this leak washed away the dirt and cow waste that provided the seal the resulting gap would have been big enough for flies to get through.
Engineer Michael Reilly told David Humphries for the prosecution he
examined the underground tank and found it was porous and therefore unable to fill to capacity.
It was built in the 1970s, he said, to take waste water from a nearby milking parlour.
Mr Reilly will continue his evidence in front of Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury of six men and six women today. EVIDENCE Dr Manlove Patrick Quirke at court yesterday