Mr Moonlight appeal: DPP responds to claims that Pat Quirke conviction should be quashed

Lawyers for the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) have begun responding to arguments that the trial of Patrick Quirke was unfair and his conviction should be quashed.

Michael Bowman SC for the DPP today, Thursday, told the three-judge Court of Appeal that the trial judge properly used her discretion when she allowed the jury to hear evidence of Quirke's "obsession" with his former lover Mary Lowry.

Ms Lowry was in a relationship with the deceased man Bobby Ryan when Quirke murdered him. The prosecution alleged that Quirke murdered his love rival so he could rekindle the affair with Ms Lowry.

Quirke (51), of Breanshamore, Co Tipperary was convicted last year of the murder of popular DJ and father-of-two Bobby "Mr Moonlight" Ryan (52) at Fawnagowan in Tipperary.

Mr Ryan disappeared on June 3, 2011 after he left Ms Lowry's home early in the morning. His badly decomposed body was discovered in a disused, underground tank on 30 April 2013 on farmland owned by Ms Lowry and leased by Quirke.

Mr Bowman is continuing his submissions to the appeal court this afternoon.