LAST UPDATE | 20 Mar 2023

THE SUPREME COURT has declared that the seizure of a computer was unlawful in the Patrick Quirke investigation  for the murder of Bobby Ryan.

The court, in its judgment, said that further argument is required regarding the consequences of the ruling.

A seven judge panel heard the case at Ireland’s highest court over two days last year – the case came following an earlier rejection by the Court of Appeal. 

Quirke’s Supreme Court appeal focused on the validity of the search warrant used in the murder investigation and the DPP’s discretion in calling expert witness in a trial.

Quirke (51), from Breanshamore, is serving a life sentence after being found guilty in 2019 of murdering the father of two at Fawnagowan in Co Tipperary.

Bobby Ryan was known as Mr Moonlight as he used that as the name for his DJ business. 

A jury at the Central Criminal Court convicted him by a majority verdict of 10:2 after a 71-day trial.

He had denied murdering Ryan (52), who went missing on 3 June 2011, after leaving his partner Mary Lowry’s house early that morning.

His body was found nearly two years later in an underground run-off tank on a farm owned by Lowry, which had been leased by Quirke.

It was the prosecution’s case that Quirke murdered Ryan so he could rekindle an affair with Lowry.

It contended that he subsequently “staged” the discovery of Ryan’s body after she tried to terminate his lease.

His appeal, containing 52 grounds, was dismissed by the Court of Appeal in November 2021.

With additional reporting from Press Association