The jury in the Tipperary murder trial has been sent home for the evening.
They began deliberating on a verdict this afternoon - three months to the day after the case was opened to them.
They’ve been asked to consider whether 50-year-old farmer Patrick Quirke from Breanshamore, County Tipperary is guilty of murdering local DJ Bobby Ryan sometime between June 3rd 2011 and April 30th 2013.
Mr Quirke denies murdering Mr Ryan – a man described by the prosecution as his “love rival.”
It is the prosecution’s case that he murdered him in an attempt to rekindle an affair he had previously with Bobby’s girlfriend Mary Lowry.
Mr Ryan stayed with Ms Lowry the night before he went missing and it was the accused who found his remains in a run-off tank on her farm 22 months later.
The prosecution has claimed this was a “staged discovery.”
The defence described the prosecution's case as “based on theory” with no hard evidence.
Ms Justice Eileen Creedon began the first part of her charge today.
She asked the jurors to look at the evidence with a critical mind and not to just accept what they hear.
She said they should analyse it and weigh one piece of evidence against another.
The jury in Patrick Quirke's murder trial has retired to consider a verdict - three months to the day after the case was opened to them.
Mr. Quirke (50) from Breanshamore, Co. Tipperary denies murdering local DJ Bobby Ryan sometime between June 3 2011 and April 30th 2013.— Frank Greaney (@FrankGreaney) April 23, 2019
She warned them not to be motivated by sympathy, anger or disgust.
She told them they are entitled to take into account the impression a witness made on them and to ask themselves: “Do I believe this witness or not?”
She told them they have to be satisfied to a level where there's “no lingering doubt” and warned that: “You can't come back next week and say you’ve changed your mind.”
In relation to lies, she told them not to jump to conclusions because people tell lies for all sorts of reasons.
She said they should look at why the person has lied and then attach whatever weight they see fit to it.
Reporting from Frank Greaney at the Central Criminal Court
