Murder accused Patrick Quirke told one of his farm hands he heard a rumour that Polish people were involved in the killing of Co Tipperary DJ Bobby Ryan, the Central Criminal Court has heard.
Gary Cunningham told David Humphries BL, prosecuting, that he was studying agricultural science in 2013 and did work experience on Mr Quirke’s farms, starting in February.
The witness said he had a conversation with Mr Quirke after Mr Ryan’s body was found in a tank on land leased by the accused. Mr Cunningham said the accused asked him if he had heard any rumours about what happened.
Mr Cunningham said he could not recall what his response was, but that Mr Quirke told him he had heard a rumour it was a ‘Polish group’.
The witness told defence counsel Bernard Condon SC there was a rumour going around that Polish people were involved in the murder of Mr Ryan.
Mr Cunningham further told Mr Humphries during re-examination that he could not recall if he heard that rumour from anyone other than the accused.
Mr Quirke (50), of Breanshamore, Co Tipperary, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Ryan, who was a DJ known as ‘Mr Moonlight’.
Rekindle
Mr Ryan went missing on June 3rd, 2011 after leaving his girlfriend Mary Lowry’s home at about 6.30am. His body was found in an underground run-off tank on the farm owned by Ms Lowry and leased by the accused at Fawnagown, Tipperary in April 2013. The prosecution claims that Mr Quirke murdered Mr Ryan so he could rekindle an affair with Ms Lowry (52).
Mr Cunningham also told Mr Humphries that he did not know of the existence of the tank where Mr Ryan’s body was found and never spoke to Mr Quirke about it.
Emmett Kenny told Mr Humphries that he started working on Mr Quirke’s farm in 2009. He worked there during the calving season from February to April doing general farm work, feeding, milking and looking after the cattle.
Mr Quirke owned a farm at Breanshamore where he had a milking parlour and leased the farm at Fawnagowan where he also kept cattle. Mr Kenny knew of the tank where Mr Ryan’s body was found because he would be doing jobs around that area.
He thought it was an old septic tank and said there was a ditch beside it that cattle would shelter in during bad weather. Cattle would walk on top of the tank but they had no effect on the concrete slabs covering it, he said. Mr Kenny said he never fenced off the tank.
Get on
Mr Humphries then turned to Ms Lowry and the witness said he saw her maybe 20 times over the years and talked to her on occasion. He saw Mr Quirke together with her once or twice and they appeared to get on fine. He recalled Mr Quirke telling him that Ms Lowry has a good farm, but they never discussed her apart from that.
Under cross examination by Mr Condon he accepted that he previously told gardaí that Mr Quirke told him that Martin Lowry, Ms Lowry’s deceased husband, was a good farmer.
On the bank holiday weekend when Mr Ryan went missing the witness recalled that Mr Quirke went away on the Friday. He said Mr Quirke had told him about two weeks earlier that he would be going away for the bank holiday and asked if Mr Kenny be available to work on the farm.
The day after the discovery of Mr Ryan’s body, Mr Kenny met the accused in the milking parlour at Breanshamore. Mr Quirke asked: “Did you hear?” and the witness replied: “I did yes.” That was all he said.
Fence
Last October, Mr Kenny went to Fawnagowan with gardaí and pointed out to them a septic tank in a field in front of Ms Lowry’s house which Mr Kenny erected a fence around when he started working for Mr Quirke in 2009. He put up this fence, he said, because it was his understanding that a heifer had suffered an injury to her leg when it got caught between gaps in the concrete.
He accepted under cross examination that he was not there when the heifer was injured and that “it’s quite possible” he was wrong in thinking the heifer was injured at that tank. He added that he always thought the tank where Mr Ryan’s body was found was an old septic tank.
The witness further told Mr Condon that on October 26th, 2013 he pointed out to gardaí an area beside a slatted shed where bales of silage would have been stacked in June 2011 when Mr Ryan went missing. A garda photographed the area but Mr Kenny was not shown the photograph.
The trial continues on Wednesday before Ms Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury of six men and six women.