A witness told how he noticed a van with the word ‘Moonlight’ on it parked in a wooded area on the morning of DJ Bobby Ryan’s disappearance.

Joe McLoughlin, who worked as a courier, was among a number of witnesses who told the murder trial at the Central Criminal Court of sightings of a van on June 3 2011.

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

Mr McLoughlin told the trial that in the early morning of Friday June 3 2011, his work as a courier had taken him to Bansha and around Golden in Co Tipperary, with a route past the carpark at Kilshane or Bansha Woods.

He recalled passing the woods at around 7.45am or 8am, having left his home in Wexford at around 5am.

When passing the woods, he saw a maroon coloured car with the back end facing out over to the right and also spotted a van parked parallel to the road.

Asked to describe the van, he saw he only saw the roof through a tap in the hedge and saw the word “Moonlight” written on it.

A number of dog walkers also told the trial that they had spotted a van in the car park of Bansha Woods that morning.

Michelle Lovelock said she noticed a ‘strange van’ on the right hand side of the car park at around 8.10am or 8.15am. It was a light coloured, silver van she said.

She took her dogs on a walk in the woods and when she came back to the car park at 8.50am, it was gone, she told the court.

Eddie Hogg said he arrived at Bansha Woods at approximately 8.15am to exercise his dogs. He also noticed a ‘white or silver van’ parked ‘lengthways rather than nose in’ in the circular car park.

The vehicle was on the left hand side near the barrier, he said.

Mr Hogg agreed that he had given a second statement to the gardaí and was shown a photograph of a silver van and he agreed it was a similar van to that one.

Cross examined by Lorcan Staines SC for the Defence, Mr Hogg said he had not noticed any markings on the van.

Meanwhile Jim Cully, a self-employed hackney driver and former next door neighbour of Bobby Ryan and his wife Mary told the trial that he had driven a regular school run from Cashel to Cappawhite village, collecting a number of youths in the morning, leaving at 8.25am.

He had got to know Bobby Ryan well as his next door neighbour, he said.

On Friday morning, June 3 2011, he had left Cashel, carrying five or six youths on an eight seat transporter bus and had driven out Dundrum road into Dundrum Village and then driven the Annacarty road.

At around 8.40am, he said he was “almost certain” he saw Bobby Ryan’s van travelling back towards Dundrum village. He noted ‘Mr Moonlight’ written on the front windscreen of the van, with black designs on the side.

“I’d be familiar with Bobby’s van,” he said. “I was not certain who was driving the van but whoever it was saluted me by raising his right hand,” he said.

He said the van appeared to be travelling at a normal speed.

The trial continues.

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