The daughter of murder victim Bobby Ryan has said she hopes her father’s human rights aren’t forgotten during killer Patrick Quirke’s upcoming appeal.
The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission has now joined as a participant in the farmer’s appeal of his murder conviction.
Michelle Ryan told the Irish Mirror yesterday: “Where was Daddy’s human rights when he was left to lie in a tank for 20-odd months? What about him? He lost his life.
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“He was a living, breathing human being. A man. A man that was entitled to live.”
The body of the well-known DJ, known by his stage name of Mr Moonlight, was discovered in a disused slurry pit on land farmed by Quirke in Fawnagown, Co Tipperary, in April 2013. He had been missing for 22 months.
Yesterday the IHREC said Quirke’s appeal, due to be heard on October 25, raises “a significant human rights issue” in regards to the requirement for specific safeguards concerning the seizure and examination of electronic data devices pursuant to a search warrant.
Much of the case before the Supreme Court challenges the validity of a search warrant used that led to gardai seizing a laptop.
But Michelle said she hopes the Supreme Court hearing does not overlook her father’s rights.
She added: “I hope that Bobby Ryan’s right to life will be respected above the right of a laptop and of a convicted criminal that is now desperately trying to worm his way out from behind bars.
“If you ask me, the biggest human right that was taken away was Bobby Ryan’s life. It was taken by pure and utter savagery.”
Quirke was convicted in 2019 over the “love rival” killing with a jury agreeing with the prosecution that he murdered Mr Ryan in a jealous rage and in a bid to get back with former lover Mary Lowry.
Michelle now fears the justice system is weighed too heavily in favour of the perpetrator.
She said: “The likes of these murderers and animals in prison have more of a right and are looked at more than their victims. The victim is forgotten the minute they are discarded in whatever fashion their murderer sees fit.”
Quirke is now seeking to follow his appeal by videolink – something the court said it may be able to facilitate. Reacting to the news Michelle said: “Is this the case when Pat Quirke says jump we’ll all say how high?”
Evil Quirke, who is serving life in the Midlands Prison, lost his initial case before the Court of Appeal last year. This is his last hope at freedom before an Irish court.
But Michelle said she fears he will try to go on to the European courts.
She added: “I don’t think it’s going to be the end of it. He has a sense of entitlement.
“It’s like he’s blaming Bobby Ryan, ‘I’m in here because of that man’. That’s the way it’s coming across to me.”
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