PAT QUIRKE denied an allegation by gardaí that he was getting “cash on demand and sex on demand” from Mary Lowry, describing it as “a downright lie”.

He also denied attempting to control Mary Lowry’s financial affairs.

The jury has heard evidence of Mr Quirke’s interviews with gardaí while under arrest for alleged harassment of Ms Lowry in 2014.

During the interview he denied that he had become violent and had pressurised Ms Lowry to compensate him for the loss of a number of cows from his herd, which he claimed had occurred after he took a cow with BVD – which he described to gardaí as the ‘bovine equivalent of AIDS” – into his herd from Ms Lowry’s farm.

Patrick Quirke (50) of Breanshamore, Co Tipperary has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Bobby Ryan, (52) a part time DJ known as Mr Moonlight on a date between June 3 2011 and April 2013.

Mr Quirke, in garda interviews, denied that the discussion with Mary Lowry over compensation had become heated or that he had used both hands to push Ms Lowry, causing her to fall over in her kitchen, adding: “absolutely not. I never raised a hand to her or anyone else.”

He denied suggesting that she compensate him and said she was “anxious” to compensate him.

He said Ms Lowry later suggested that he would not have to repay a sum of €20,000 she had loaned him in lieu of compensation for the loss of his cows.

Mr Quirke told gardaí he managed Ms Lowry’s investments after her husband Martin died, having known almost everything about Mr Lowry’s investments before he died.

However, he denied that his management of the investments for Ms Lowry amounted to control or an attempt to control a vulnerable woman.

He said he did not get paid for managing her late husband’s investments and it was not the same thing as controlling them.

Gardaí suggested it was a “win win” for him as Ms Lowry had invested money and he was to have a 50:50 share of the profit.

Meanwhile gardaí asked him why he had had an affair with her and Mr Quirke replied: “I suppose we became attracted to each other,” and denied being unhappy at home.

Asked if he agreed she was vulnerable at the time, Mr Quirke told gardaí: “No, I believe she knew what she was doing.”

He was asked by gardaí if he had contacted  social workers about  a claim that Ms Lowry was neglecting her children and Mr Quirke agreed he had.

He claimed he had done so following a conversation with his mother-in-law, Rita Lowry who told him the children had been left alone by Mary Lowry during the night and when the youngest children became aware of her absence the next morning, he had become distressed.

“I thought Mary had lost her way a little bit,” Mr Quirke told the gardaí.

“I think she was in a situation where she was party to the neglect to her children. It’s very obvious she was neglecting her children and left them on their own.”

Gardaí put to him that, having been so close to Mary Lowry and in love with her,  it “might have been  more appropriate to talk to her rather than bring a government department down on top of her.”

Mr Quirke had replied that this had been “the last straw.”

The trial continues.

Source: Read Full Article