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Gardaí investigating the murder of Tipperary man, 24-year-old Mr Conor Quinn; latter fatally stabbed in Mallow town centre last Thursday evening, now believe that the suspect in the case may have fled the Irish State.
Gardaí had been searching for a 21-year-old local man; appealing to him to contact them and present himself at the local Garda Station. However it is now understood that he has left the State; with assistance, despite airports and ports being alerted of this posibility. A file is now being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions, as Gardaí interact with Interpol in their efforts to trace his present whereabouts.
 Gardaí have since secured CCTV footage of the fatal assault last Thursday, which shows Mr Quinn pulling up in a car on Bridge Street, before being fatally stabbed, leaving the suspect to flee on foot.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margot Bolster found that Mr Quinn had died from a single star wound to his stomach.
Mr Quinn grew up here in Springhouse, Kilshane, Co. Tipperary and went to school in Tipperary Town. His passing is most deeply regretted by his loving parents Teresa and Paul; brother Anthony; sister Sinead; partner Stephanie; grandparents; uncles; aunts; cousins; extended relatives and friends.
Funeral Arrangements
The earthly remains of Mr Quinn will lie in repose at D. Whelan’s Funeral Home, No.1 Bansha Road, Knockanrawley, Co. Tipperary, [E34 V611], on this evening, Wednesday, 18th July, from 5.30pm to 8.00pm.
Requiem Mass will be held on Thursday morning in St. Michael’s Church, Tipperary Town at 10.30am, with interment taking place immediately afterwards in St. Michael’s Cemetery, Tipperary.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.
 An investigation is under way following the stabbing to death of a man believed to be from Kilshane, Tipperary town, Co. Tipperary.
The 24-year-old male is understood to have become involved in an altercation with at least one other male, during which he received his wounds, at Bridge Street, Mallow, Co. Cork at around 8.30pm last night.
Named locally as Mr Conor Quinn, the victim was treated by paramedics at the scene, before being taken to Cork University Hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.
The motive for the altercation remains unclear but investigators are examining the possibility that it may have followed on from an argument earlier in the day at a horse fair in Buttevant, Co. Cork.
The scene was preserved for a time following the incident to allow for a technical examination. Local speculation would indicate that his attacker may have been from the Mallow area.
Gardaí are now appealing for witnesses or for anyone with information to contact Mallow Garda Station Tel: (022) 31450, the Garda Confidential Telephone Line Tel: 1800 666 111 or indeed any garda station.
 The jury sitting on the trial of Tipperary Independent TD, Mr Michael Lowry and on his refrigeration company Garuda Ltd.; both accused in relation to alleged tax offences, are expected to resume their deliberations on Monday morning next at 10.30am.
As readers will be aware, these charges relate to a commission payment of some €372,000 correctly due from a Finnish refrigeration company, Norpe OY, and made payable to Garuda Ltd in 2002. Same was paid to a third party in the Isle of Man on the verbal direction of Mr Lowry, who was abroad on extended leave, at the time of the transaction.
The Irish State would maintain that same payment was kept off the books in 2002, and that Mr Lowry and the company then attempted to introduce this payment in his 2006 tax returns.
Mr Lowry and Garuda Ltd. have both rigorously denied these charges, pleading not guilty to knowingly delivering incorrect accounts and information in relation to Corporation Tax for the year 2002. They had also rigidly denied making an incorrect Corporation Tax Return in 2007, relating to the business year 2006 and with failing to keep proper audited accounts; allegedly brought about with Mr Lowry’s consent or connivance.
A charge alleging that Mr Lowry himself had submitted an incorrect tax return for 2002 was already dropped by the prosecution on Wednesday last.
Yesterday Mr Justice Martin Nolan, summing up, informed the jury that the issue in this case was “what Mr Lowry actually knew”. He stated that the selected jury members must be fully satisfied, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Mr Lowry was fully aware that this earned commission, had not been included in his company accounts and tax computations.
He said Mr Lowry’s explanation was that he had instructed a staff member to raise an invoice in 2002, and had assumed this had been completed and the money automatically entered onto the company’s books by his firm of accountants.
Judge Nolan also told the trial jurors that they must be fully satisfied, beyond a reasonable doubt that this is not true in order to convict. He said that if they found the explanation was reasonably believable, then they must acquit. He further stated that if the jury believed Mr Lowry did not know about the money appearing in Garuda’s 2006 accounts, they must also acquit on that charge as well.
Judge Nolan articulated that the eleven person jury must also deliver a corresponding verdict for both Mr Lowry and Garuda Ltd. as Mr Lowry was and is “the company”. He said the jury must look at the evidence in a common-sense way, before coming to a decision coldly in the light of facts.
Earlier yesterday, Mr Lowry’s personal Senior Counsel, Mr Michael O’Higgins SC had informed jurors that the case against his client was was “deeply flawed” from the “get-go” and “jaundiced from the outset”. “You can read a lot of stuff telling you about Michael Lowry. The people of Tipperary are almost shamed for returning him, election in and election out,” Michael O’Higgins SC, told the jury. “There is no aura about Michael Lowry. No mystery about him topping the polls; he grafts,” (This referred to evidence from his political secretary, that he works from 8.00am to midnight, throughout his Tipperary constituency).
He further inquired of the jury if they had “ever made a mistake in your life, the kind of mistake that comes under scrutiny” and immediately afterwards there is some “authority figure” investigating you. “You are told your mistake is not just up for grabs, but your motive too and you are told that you are under investigation,” counsel told the jury. Mr O’Higgins said that because of “time pressures”, the charges were “simply laid against” his client, although Mr Lowry was willing to meet with his accusers, the Revenue tax inspectors. This case was taken just a mere 3 weeks before the 10 year elapsed time frame for Lowry’s alleged offence.
“Time Pressures” refers to a past statement [See Section 1078 (7)] of the Taxes Consolidation Act; regarding the then Caymen island scandal by the former Revenue Commissioner chairperson Ms Josephine Feehily. She had then stated that while many cases passed the serious evasion test to be considered for prosecution, the time elapsed, typically in excess of 10 years since the alleged offence had occurred, meant it would not be possible to mount a successful prosecution.
[Section 1078 (7)] of the Taxes Consolidation Act provides that proceedings must be initiated within 10 years from the date of the commission of the offence] Notwithstanding any other enactment, proceedings in respect of an offence under this section may be instituted within 10 years from the date of the commission of the offence or incurring of the penalty, as the case may be.]
Mr O’Higgins asked the jury if they had found it somewhat bizarre that Mr Lowry had never once been interviewed by a tax inspector, despite his home and business premises being raided, on the same hour, by some 21 persons employed by Revenue. Taxes Inspector Ms Shelia Hanley who was involved in the raid and the thorough search of Mr Lowry’s home, had informed the jury that she accepted that only a “small sheaf ” of documents were recovered and same were “not of any evidential value”, meaning that nothing untoward had been located suggesting any criminal activity.
Mr O’Higgins claimed that Revenue inspectors had put their summons out, because of time pressures, without even having a case against Mr Lowry. He said the jury now needed to focus on whether Mr Lowry had the fullest knowledge of what had been accounted for in his company’s books. Here he said was a case where there was an ‘excessive form of zeal’; ‘a form of tunnel vision’, and a case brought about which displayed utter ‘inflexibility’ and was entirely ‘disproportionate with regard to the real facts’.
We will return to report on this case on Monday next, when the jury will again convene to further deliberate.
 Dublin Circuit Criminal Court The remaining eleven person jury in the trial of Tipperary Independent TD Michael Lowry were told by Mr Patrick Treacy SC, defending Garuda Ltd, that an alleged missing invoice had “an innocent explanation” and the missing document could not be misconstrued as part of some “conjuring act” .
The State’s case is that Mr Lowry’s company, Garuda Ltd, received £248,624 (Stg) or €372,000 (Euro) in commission from Norpe OY, a Finish refrigeration company back in August 2002. Allegations have been made that Mr Lowry arranged for this payment to be made to a third party, one Mr Kevin Phelan, latter residing in the Isle of Man, and the paid commission; part of an agency agreement between Norpe OY and Mr Lowry, didn’t appear in the accounts of Garuda Ltd, for that same year 2002.
My personal observances during the previous weeks proceedings, saw a somewhat feeble team of Revenue witnesses, convened by the prosecution, all who had inferred that accounts were falsified in 2007, to mirror that the payment had been only received in 2006.
A Revenue witness for the prosecution, Mr Thomas Keating; the latter a former, now retired Senior Tax Inspector at Thurles Tax Office, gave evidence that a CT1 form received on behalf of Garuda Ltd, for that year (ending 2002), forwarded by his accountants was neither “signed nor dated”. He further confirmed that same should not have been acted upon, due to the fact it bore no signature. Mr Keating further accepted, under pressure, from Mr Patrick Treacy that the ‘fine print’ as such on the declaration form provided, states that the person signing the document agrees that everything included in the form, to the best of the clients knowledge, is correct and complete. In this case there was no signed statement made on that CT1 form and none of the boxes were then deemed as being either correct or complete.
Mr Patrick Treacy had asked Mr Keating if he had heard Mr Farrell’s original opening statement of the previous day e.g. “Cooking the books not once but twice” and “Putting toothpaste back into the tube” ; to which Mr Keating muttered, “I wasn’t in court, but I heard it on the RTE news“. Mr Treacy, defending, continued “Surely, when the CT1 form is not even signed, the lid can’t have been even removed from the toothpaste tube and the books couldn’t have been cooked”.
Continuing to defend Garuda Ltd., Mr Patrick Treacy SC, further reminded the jury that the politician’s private secretary, had given a frank explanation justifying the reason there was no invoice for the €372,000. He stated that Norpe OY had informed her that an invoice had to issue from Mr Kevin Phelan directly, rather than Garuda Ltd and that remained the very simple, innocent explanation for the absence of an invoice. There was “no conjuring act here”, Mr Treacy confirmed, this evidence given was a key moment during the trial.
In a major development on Wednesday last, inside Court No 9, an allegation against Mr Michael Lowry, for having personally filed a false tax return, relating to the years 2002; Mr Justice Martin Nolan had directed the 11 person Jury to find Mr Lowry “Not Guilty”. “When this charge against Mr Lowry was dropped yesterday, the prosecution case went up in a puff of smoke”, Mr Treacy verbalized.
A tax inspector had determined that the €372,000 was an emolument, (a wage or salary), and because of that both Mr Lowry and Garuda Ltd owed income tax, PAYE and PRSI. Both were assessed as owing a total bill of €1.1 million including interest, fines and penalties on the €372,000. This assessment was later successfully challenged before the appeals commission and reduced to nil.
“Such was the engine driving this whole case”, stated Mr Treacy, who continued, advising the jury that Revenue didn’t anticipate that; “The engine ran into a serious problem in terms of staying on track”. Mr Lowry and Garuda Ltd would now fight this assessment “tooth and nail”.
“Yesterday the engine got decoupled from the carriages and the whole engine that drove this whole thing, to bring it into court, is gone. It went because what they thought was their case had evaporated,” stated Mr Treacy, “however the eight carriages remain trundling on”
Referring to the opening speech on the Monday of the previous week where the counsel for the prosecution Mr Remy Farrell SC, had stated that Garuda’s books were “cooked, not once but twice”, council for Garuda stated that “the only cooking being done now was by Revenue. This case relates to the misfiling of an invoice and it is presented to the 11 of you, as a gross fraud on the exchequer,” he continued.
Referring to Mr Farrell’s description that some of the accounting procedures adopted by Garuda Ltd was “an attempt to move the body”, Mr Treacy declared “This isn’t a body case. It is not even a murder case. It is a Revenue case.” He further stated that the charge of making an incorrect return in connection with corporation tax in 2007 was not what the State claimed “the disposal of the dead body”.
Mr Treacy now asked each of the the jury members to consider the symbols of justice when determining the case. “This symbol (Justitia, c 1AD) is of a blindfolded woman who holds a sword in one hand and the scales of justice in the other. This sword represents the power of reason and the ability to cut through and decide on what is truth and what is a falsehood. The scales represents the balance of the individual against the needs of society and a fair balance between interests of one individual and those of another. “She is blindfolded to represent equality, knowing no differences in the parties involved, and it means you are to remain blind to anything that may be prejudicial, or anything that may colour you from adjudicating properly on this case,” Mr Treacy declared.
He went on to described the prosecution case as “madness”, “relentless”, “manic”, and “a joke”. He informed the jury that the law under which his client is charged requires that you can be convicted by Revenue even if the mistake in the return leads to an overpayment of tax. “The only way this now halts is when an external authority states that this has gone too far, and that same authority is the eleven of you”, Mr Treacy suggested.
Finally, Mr Treacy asked the jury members to ask themselves “one fundamental question”, “Is it right that his client should be prosecuted in Dublin Circuit Criminal Court by the Revenue Commissioners in relation to an underpayment of corporation tax of €5,541?”
The trial will continue before Judge Nolan and a jury of three women and eight men on Monday.
 Taking you inside Court No 9 today, to show the seating arrangements currently in use within the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court building. As our readers will be aware we have been closely following the trial of Tipperary Independent TD Mr Michael Lowry. This latter trial was moved out of Co. Tipperary, to the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to be heard before a Dublin based Jury; on the grounds that he was “too popular” in Tipperary to be judged by a jury of his peers.
In a major development this morning inside Court No 9 at the trial, the charge /allegation against Mr Michael Lowry, for personally filing a false tax return, relating to the years 2002; Mr Justice Martin Nolan has directed the 11 person Jury to find Mr Lowry “Not Guilty”.
The prosecution had agreed to withdraw the allegation, following an application by Mr Lowry’s lawyers, and while in the absence of the 11 person jury members.
The withdrawn charge had alleged that that Mr Lowry, on 21st October, 2003, knowingly or will-fully had made an incorrect tax return for 2002, through failing to reflect or account for £248,624 (€372,000) obtained by him from Garuda Ltd, which should have been declared as personal income.
His trial will continue over the coming days in Court No 9, before Mr Justice Martin Nolan and his jury of eight men and three women, in relation to four other allegations.
More details on this case in the coming days.
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