Patrick Quirke’s appeal over conviction for murdering Bobby Ryan dismissed

The Supreme Court of Ireland has dismissed an appeal by Patrick Quirke over the admissibility of evidence in his trial for the murder of Bobby Ryan.

In March the court allowed an appeal by Quirke over his conviction for the murder and said the seizure of a computer during the Garda investigation was unlawful.

The court said that gardai had not specified that computer devices could be seized in the sworn information they provided to the judge who granted the search warrant.

The court had ruled that the search carried out in Mr Quirke’s home on May 17 2013 was lawful, but the seizure of the computer to search “within the digital space” was not.

Gardai subsequently found internet searches on the computer including “a human corpse post mortem: the stages of decomposition”, “How DNA works”, and other searches relating to body decomposition.

The Supreme Court considered whether the findings on Quirke’s computer should have been admitted as evidence in the trial, and whether a retrial only would decide if it was admissible.

On Friday, the seven-judge panel ruled that the conviction of Mr Quirke for the murder of Bobby Ryan should be affirmed, and that the omission of reference to the possible seizure of computers on the search warrant was due to “honest inadvertence”.

Mr Justice Peter Charleton said that it would defy logic that the omission was a “conscious” violation of constitutional rights.

“The illegality attaching was due expressly to a new legal development in the law related to digital-space privacy,” he said.

“There was, on the trial judge’s ruling, no dishonesty.

“The mistake in the application on oath for the warrant and the resulting search warrant was due to honest inadvertence.

“The gardai followed the law as it appeared to be at the time of the search.

“The conviction of the accused for the murder of Bobby Ryan should therefore be affirmed.”

After a 71-day trial at the Central Criminal Court in 2019, Quirke was convicted by a majority verdict of 10-2 of murdering Bobby Ryan in Co Tipperary between June 3 2011 and April 30 2013.

Mr Ryan was reported missing on June 3 2011 by his family, who said he had inexplicably vanished.

On April 30 2013, Quirke told gardai he had found human remains, which were confirmed to be Mr Ryan’s, in an old run-off tank on land he had been leasing at Fawnagowan.

Mr Ryan, a DJ who went by the nickname Mr Moonlight, had been in a relationship with the owner of the land, Mary Lowry.

Quirke had previously been in a relationship with Ms Lowry, his wife’s widowed sister-in-law.

Ms Lowry gave evidence during the trial and said Quirke did not take it well when she ended their affair and that he seemed to be depressed.

Quirke, who has made no admission to the murder and denied any involvement, is serving a life sentence.