An expert witness has told the Tipperary murder trial that he favoured the possibility that Bobby Ryan’s injuries were caused by being hit by a vehicle.

Patrick Quirke from Breanshamore, County Tipperary denies murdering the local DJ on a date between June 3rd 2011 and April 30th 2013.

Former Deputy State Pathologist Dr Khalid Jaber carried out a postmortem on Bobby Ryan the day after his body was found by Patrick Quirke in a run-off tank on farmland belonging to Mary Lowry – Mr Ryan’s girlfriend at the time he went missing and a former lover of the accused.

Today, the defence called Dr Michael Curtis who said he reviewed his former colleague’s report.

He said he was also of the opinion that the cause of death was blunt force trauma but he said he favoured the possibility that it was caused by being hit by a vehicle.

He said other possibilities included a direct blow from an implement like a baton or a baseball bat.

He also said he believed the body had been “placed” in the tank rather than thrown because of the way the limbs were so neatly aligned.

He said there would have been a lot of bleeding – from the severe injury to his head in particular.

He accepted under cross-examination that he could have been lured to another location that was easier to clean and wash up.

Mrs Lowry told the jurors earlier in the trial that she last saw Bobby Ryan leaving her home at 6.30am on the morning of June 3rd 2011.

The local DJ was reported missing a few hours later and his body was found by Patrick Quirke in the run-off tank on her farm almost two years later.

The prosecution believe he killed him in the hope of rekindling an affair he’d had previously with Mrs. Lowry.

He denies the charge.

Reporting from Frank Greaney at the Central Criminal Court