Tipperary murder trial hears there was no ‘panic’ when concrete fell into tank where body lay

AN excavator driver who pulled a concrete slab from the underground tank where DJ Bobby ‘Mr Moonlight’ Ryan’s remains were found has said there was no “pandemonium or panic” when parts of the slab broke away and fell into the tank.

Tony Chearnley, a retired garda, agreed that the concrete breaking up was “not ideal” but added: “We don’t live in an ideal world. It wasn’t ideal but that was the best I could do.”

Mr Chearnley told the trial of 50-year-old farmer Patrick Quirke that he went to the scene where Mr Ryan’s body had been discovered on the afternoon of April 30, 2013. He used the excavator to pull a large piece of concrete away from the tank to allow gardai to access the body.

While pulling away the concrete, he told defence counsel Lorcan Staines SC, the lid broke where there had been a pre-existing crack and a lot of “small pieces” fell into the tank. He said he didn't hear any loud noises and didn't see any dust but accepted that the concrete breaking up was “not ideal”.

He said he did not discuss the pieces falling into the tank with anyone there and under reexamination he told prosecution counsel Michael Bowman SC that he did not see any “pandemonium or panic” among gardai at the scene. 

Mr Quirke of Breanshamore, Co Tipperary has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Mr Ryan - a part-time DJ going by the name Mr Moonlight - on a date between June 3, 2011 and April 2013. Mr Ryan’s body was found in a run-off tank on the farm leased by the accused at Fawnagown, Tipperary in April 2013. The prosecution claims that Mr Quirke murdered Mr Ryan so that he could rekindle an affair with Mary Lowry, 52, the deceased’s then girlfriend.

The trial continues this Friday afternoon in front of Justice Eileen Creedon and a jury of six men and six women.