Patrick Quirke murder jury sent home for weekend

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Patrick Quirke’s murder trial jury was sent home for the weekend after deliberating for about 11 hours. The proceedings were reported on 26 April 2019. The jury was due to return on Monday for a fifth day of deliberations.

Quirke, of Breanshamore, Co Tipperary, pleaded not guilty to murdering Bobby Ryan, a part-time DJ known as Mr Moonlight.

Ryan went missing on 3 June 2011 after leaving his girlfriend Mary Lowry’s home. His body was found in April 2013 in an underground run-off tank on her farm at Fawnagown, Tipperary, which Quirke leased.

The prosecution claimed Quirke murdered Ryan so he could rekindle an affair with Lowry. The defence argued that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt and that the jury must acquit.

Ms Justice Eileen Creedon told the jury she would release them for the weekend and asked them to return at 11am on Monday. Earlier in their deliberations, the jurors had requested Quirke’s garda interviews and phone records, which were handed in.

In her charge, the judge directed jurors to treat circumstantial evidence against the accused with care and not be influenced by emotion, sympathy, anger or disgust. The verdicts open to them were guilty of murder or not guilty.