A central witness in the Mr Moonlight murder trial has been given a suspended one-year jail sentence and a one-year driving ban, after she admitted a charge of careless driving causing death. .
Mary Lowry (57), Green Road, Dundrum, Co Tipperary, wept at Clonmel Circuit Criminal Court as Judge Catherine Staines imposed the sentence.
Ms Lowry admitted driving her car without due care or attention thereby causing the death of father-of-five Patrick Connolly.
The fatal collision occurred on the N24 Waterford to Limerick road, close to an entrance to Bansha Woods, Spring House, Bansha, around 12.45pm, on December 28th, 2021.
Defence counsel Pádraig de Búrca BL read to the court a letter his client had written apologising to the Connolly family “for not paying attention” to her driving on the day.
“If I could change it, I would. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me and that [Patrick Connolly] can rest in peace,” Ms Lowry wrote.
The court heard she had waited for around two minutes for traffic travelling on the N24 to pass by an entrance to Bansha Woods, and, believing the coast was clear, she turned right out of the entrance and on to the N24.
The road, however, was not clear, and her vehicle collided with a motorcycle being driven by Mr Connolly, who was carrying his 15-year-old son, David Connolly, as a pillion passenger.
The father and son had been participating in a charity bike event at the time. Mr Connolly died from his injuries in hospital on January 2nd.
Mr Connolly’s wife, Geraldine Connolly, wept in court as she described the impact of her husband’s death. She said she was “never concerned” about him travelling on his motorbike “as he was always a careful driver”.
“He was the love of my life. The worst thing is the silence – he is no longer breathing beside me at night, we were together for 30 years,” she said.
Her husband had been “a master craftsman, carpenter, a great father, provider and husband”.
David Connolly told gardaí that moments before the collision he saw a car drive “into our lane, and I was thrown off the bike ... I went over the car and I remember being fairly winded.”
Another witness, Philip Kiely, another participant in the charity bike run on the day, who was travelling behind Mr Connolly, told gardaí that a car “shot out in front of him [Mr Connolly], Paddy had nowhere to go”.
A Garda forensic report on the collision noted road conditions and visibility were good on the day, and that Ms Lowry had been “required to yield to traffic” travelling on the N24.
The report also noted Mr Connolly might have been more visible had he been wearing high visibility clothing at the time.
Senior counsel Colman Cody, for the defendant, said Ms Lowry’s “fatal and momentary lapse of concentration” had resulted in “dreadful” and “devastating consequences”.
“Mary Lowry has to live with these devastating consequences, it is a sentence in itself.”
Mr Cody said Ms Lowry, who had no previous convictions, had lost her own husband tragically to cancer, leaving her to raise her three children alone.
He said Ms Lowry was “well known” after appearing before the Central Criminal Court in 2019 as an “essential witness in a high-profile murder trial that led to the prosecution of the accused in that trial – it was a very difficult and traumatising time for her”.
Her evidence at the murder trial of killer Patrick Quirke was key to the prosecution case against him.
Her boyfriend Bobby Ryan, a popular DJ known as “Mr Moonlight”, went missing on June 3rd, 2011 after leaving her home at 6.30am. His body was found, on April 30th, 2013, in an underground septic tank on her farm which was being leased by Quirke.
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Judge Staines said she believed Ms Lowry was “truly remorseful”, and told her: “You now have to live with the consequences of this truly awful event.”
After the sentence and driving ban was imposed, Ms Lowry wept and said, “Thank you, judge,1” before leaving the court.
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