Ashling Murphy trial: Jozef Puska convicted of the murder of 23-year-old Offaly teacher

A man is facing a life sentence after being convicted by unanimous jury verdict today of the murder of Ashling Murphy in Co Offaly early last year.

Jozef Puska had denied the murder of the 23-year-old school teacher at Grand Canal Way, Cappincur, Co Offaly, on January 12th, 2022.

Ms Murphy had 11 stab wounds in the right side of her neck which caused acute blood loss and her heart to stop.

Neither she nor Puska, a 33-year-old native of Slovakia living in Mucklagh, Co Offaly, since 2015 with his wife and five children, were known to each other, the Central Criminal Court heard.

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The jury of nine men and three women were sent out by Mr Justice Tony Hunt at 3.35pm on Wednesday to begin their deliberations and were sent home at 4pm.

They resumed their deliberations at 10.53am on Thursday and it was indicated to the court registrar at 2.05pm, after deliberating for a total of just over two hours, that there was a verdict. All parties were contacted to gather in court and the verdict was delivered at 2.18pm.

Ms Murphy’s parents Ray and Kathleen, her sister Amy, brother Cathal and her long-time boyfriend, Ryan Casey, were in the packed courtroom number 13 when the verdict was delivered.

Mrs Murphy, who was dressed in black as was Amy, held a framed photograph of her slain daughter Ashling as the jury foreman handed the verdict to the court registrar. The family all became emotional and held each other as the registrar read the word “guilty”.

Puska, wearing a grey jacket and shirt, sat alongside an interpreter, bowing his head a number of times, just before the verdict. He put his hands over the face as the guilty verdict was set out.

Members of his family, including his parents, were seated in the back of the courtroom.

Mr Justice Hunt told the jury he agreed with their decision and was glad they didn’t spend any more time than they needed to consider Mr Puska’s “nonsense”.

That was no reflection on Mr Puska’s legal team, he said. “You can’t make bricks without straw and what the lawyers had in their hands was poor stuff indeed,” he said.

“Quite literally, you made sure nobody got away with murder,” the judge said. He exempted the jury from service for 20 years.

He told the jury he had to impose a sentence mandated by law but before that the victim’s family would have an opportunity to provide victim impact statements. He will hear them on November 17th.

There was a lot about Ashling, her GAA top, her being a primary school teacher, that resonated with people, the judge said. To lose a child is unnatural, he said. When a child gets an illness or dies in an accident, parents may be able to reconcile themselves in some way but the position of the Murphy family is unenviable, considering what happened here.

“We have evil in this room, no doubt about that,” he said.

As the jury left the courtroom, there was loud applause from the Murphy family and from many others in court. Mrs Murphy held up her daughter’s photo to the jurors, some of whom were in tears.

At the time of her death, Ms Murphy, who graduated from Mary Immaculate teacher training college in October 2021, was teaching in the national school in Durrow, just a short drive from her home in Tullamore.

She drove to Daingean Road car park after school on January 12th before going jogging along the Grand Canal about 2.51pm. Her apparently lifeless body was seen in a bramble covered ditch at Cappincur around 3.30pm.

In her closing address for the prosecution, Anne-Marie Lawlor SC described the evidence against Puska as “overwhelming”, including admissions to murder he made in St James’ hospital in Dublin on January 14th, 2022, two days after Ms Murphy’s body was found.

He had been brought to the hospital on January 13th with injuries to his stomach which he claimed he sustained as a result of being stabbed in Blanchardstown the previous day, a claim he later admitted was a lie. He underwent exploratory surgery and his injuries were not regarded as significant.

Det Sgt Brian Jennings, from Birr garda station, said Puska made an admission to murder, through an interpreter, around 6pm on January 14th after being told he was a “person of interest” in the murder investigation. Det Jennings noted down Puska had said; “I did it. I murdered. I am the murderer”, had said he was sorry and did not do it intentionally.

Detective Garda Fergus Hogan said Puska had minutes later told him, in English: “I’m sorry, I see girl I never see before. Knife I use for chain. When she pass, I cut her, I cut her neck, she panic, I panic.” The detective said Puska was upset and crying, said he was sorry and asked: “Will I go for 10 years?” Puska pointed to his abdomen, which had three puncture wounds, and said: “I do this”, Detective Hogan said.

Puska was arrested on January 18th, immediately on his discharge from hospital, and detained in Tullamore garda station on suspicion of the murder of Ms Murphy.

During his detention, he said he did not know Ms Murphy and had no recall of making admissions to her murder on January 14th. Gardai invoked legislation allowing for inferences to be drawn from his failure/refusal to explain how his DNA was under Ms Murphy’s fingernails and the presence of his Falcon Storm mountain bike at the crime scene.

On January 19th, 2022, a week after her body was found, he was formally charged with the murder of Ms Murphy.

When his trial opened on October 17th, Anne-Marie Lawlor SC said the prosecution, as well as the admissions, had CCTV evidence, DNA and witness evidence to support the murder case against Puska. The jury also heard evidence that DNA from under Ms Murphy’s fingernails matched DNA profiles of Puska’s, with a one in 14,000 chance of it matching someone else.

In his evidence to the court, Puska said he could not recall making the admissions in hospital.

He claimed he was attacked and stabbed by an unknown man wearing a face mask on the afternoon of January 12th. He claimed a woman came on the scene and that he saw the same man attack her.

He said he tried to help the injured woman before leaving the scene, going across a field and staying in a ditch for a few hours because he felt unwell. He walked in darkness to Tullamore and went to a friend’s house seeking a lift home. He said, accompanied by his parents and a male cousin, he was driven to his parents’ apartment in Crumlin from where he was brought about noon on January 13th to St James hospital, claiming to have been stabbed in an incident in Blanchardstown the previous evening.

Ms Lawlor told the jury Mr Puska was an “inveterate liar” who had admitted some lies, including that he was stabbed in Blanchardstown. He had concocted more “contemptible” lies for the jury, his account of what happened on January 12th was fabricated and it was plain he was guilty of murder, she said.

In his charge to the jury, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said they must decide whether there was a reasonable possibility Puska was a “misunderstood Good Samaritan” or whether the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.

The trial heard Puska came to Ireland with his family 10 years ago. He left his home in his native Slovakia aged 16 and went to Bratislava and then to the Czech Republic where he worked on building sites before coming to Ireland where the family lived for a time in Dublin until they moved to Mucklagh in 2015.