‘My heart was ripped from my body’: Ashling Murphy’s mother tells court of heartbreak

Ashling Murphy was a “dream daughter”, “one in a million” whose murder has left “such a void” in her family’s life, her heartbroken mother Kathleen has told the Central Criminal Court.

“My heart broke the moment I heard the bad news that Ashling was murdered. It was like having a stroke, my heart was ripped from my body.,” Mrs Murphy said in a victim impact statement.

The 23-year-old teacher’s devastated partner, Ryan Casey, said being with Ashling was like “heaven on earth” and he has “lost everything”.

“Ashling was simply everything to me, and this is what I’ve lost, I’ve simply lost everything, Ashling was just everything.”

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Amy Murphy said she and her younger sister Ashling played music together but music “is not and never will be the same without Ashling” whose pink fiddle case “now lies at home covered in dust”.

“For me, this serves as the harshest and cruellest reminder we will never play together again and of how fragile this life truly is.”

“At night we cannot sleep, we hear her cries and screams that were silenced by injustice, watch her tears shed and envision the suffering that she endured while bravely fighting her vicious and vile murderer, Jozef Puska,” she said.

Victim impact statements were read on behalf of the three on Friday before Mr Justice Tony Hunt imposed the mandatory life sentence on Puska who was convicted last week, by unanimous jury verdict, of the murder of Ms Murphy 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 since 2015 with his wife and five children, were known to each other.

Ms Murphy’s father Ray and brother Cathal were also in the packed court on Friday and all of the family were clearly distressed as the victim impact statements were read.

Neighbours and friends from their hometown of Tullamore were in court and at least one member of the jury was also present for the sentence hearing.

Having heard the statements, Mr Justice Hunt said the case involved “an unimaginable tragedy” and Ashling’s family had been “extraordinarily dignified” in the face of the “provocative, brazen” lies they heard from Puska during the trial. He hoped they would find “some solace” in having their say via the statements.

“Murders are not all the same, this one is so far up the scale of gravity, well beyond most of the things we come across,” he said.

If he had power to fix a precise term of sentence, it would be “a very long one”, he said. This was the kind of case where an “all of life sentence” would have to be considered if it was available here, he added.

In Puska’s case, a life sentence is “richly deserved” and backdating it to January 2022, when he went into custody, “should be entirely academic”, he said.

[ ‘It’s not the same anymore’: Tullamore continues to grieve after murder of Ashling Murphy ]

[ Una Mullally: The murder of Ashling Murphy changed Ireland, but violence against women is relentless ]

“The one thing we don’t know in this case is the why,” he said. Unless that becomes known and unless Puska was enfeebled by old age, the question of his return to society “must be a very open one”. He hoped those remarks would be taken into account, he added.

The judge praised the garda investigation and the medical personnel and eye witnesses who did their best for Ms Murphy.

In his victim statement, Ryan Casey said he and Ashling first met in 2013 at a local rugby club disco in Tullamore when they were aged 15 and he knew then there was “just something so special about her”. They were in a relationship together until May 2014 when they went their separate ways as they were both very young. He was welcomed into her family whom he “instantly loved”.

He and Ashling remained in touch and in October 2016 he made the “best decision” of his life, “to ring Ashling and tell her exactly how I felt and what she meant to me and that I didn’t want to waste any more time and risk losing her”.

They both knew “it was meant to be and that we were just destined to be soul mates”.

The next five years of their relationship “were filled with nothing but so much love, happiness, joy, adventure, trust and most importantly respect. It was quite simply, heaven on earth.”

They “made so many plans together such as moving in together, starting our careers, travelling the world together, building a house together, having kids and starting a family, proposing to her, getting married..” They were due to be meeting an architect in January or February of 2022 to walk a site they had picked for their home, he said.

“We often discussed how many kids we’d love to have and how they’d all be mighty little hurlers or camogie players and even better musicians.”

Every time he left her house, he would “smile to myself while driving out her driveway and say out loud in the car, “I can’t wait to marry that girl someday”.

On January 12th 2022, he “lost so much more than my girlfriend”. “I’ve lost my partner in life, my closest friend, my best friend. I’ve lost my parent in laws, a sister in law, a brother in law, the privilege of marrying into the Murphy and Leonard family..Everything that I ever wanted in life, every single plan that I had in life is now gone and cannot be brought back. Ashling was simply everything to me, and this is what I’ve lost, I’ve simply lost everything, Ashling was just everything.”

The pain of losing someone so important to you is “indescribable”, especially “in such a horrific, senseless, and just beyond evil act by such an insignificant lowest of the low waste of life”.

As a result of losing Ashling, he is unable to sleep at night and each night sits at the shrine he has made for her in his room and says to her he is “one more day closer to seeing her again”. He also experiences feelings of guilt, feels directionless, is without confidence and is unable to watch or listen to anything “with the slightest bit of violence in it”, even simple things like using a knife to eat.

“This horrific, senseless, and completely evil taking of Ashling’s life is our life sentence that we have to bear for the remainder of our lives, a sentence in which there is no parole,” he said.

Mr Casey was critical that a life sentence here is not 23 years and said, if “real change” does not happen, “if the safety of people living in this country is further ignored, I’m afraid our country is heading down a very dangerous path and you can be certain that we will not be the last family to be in this position”.

“I don’t think we will ever truly know why this evil, evil, description of a human being decided to take our Ashling from us….”

Addressing Puska, he said “you have no idea ... nor did you ever and will never have any idea, the level of connection and love that Ashling and I shared”.

“Because of you, I’ve lost my Ashling. Because of you, I’ve lost everything I’ve ever wanted in life..Because of you, I will have to remember her longer than I’ve known her.”

“I don’t care where you end up ... or what happens to you after today ... but you smirked, you smiled, and you showed zero remorse throughout this trial, which sums up who you really are, the epitome of pure evil but one thing is for sure, you will never ever harm or touch another woman ever again and when your day of reckoning comes, may you be in hell a whole half-hour, before God even knows you’re dead.”

In her statement, read by a Garda, Kathleen Murphy described Ashling as “a dream daughter”, “one in a million” who was “loving, caring and always had a gentle big smile for everyone”.

“Our house was alive with music every night as she played her fiddle. I miss her sweet music in our home, it breaks my heart.” She also missed going to Ashling’s camogie matches and music concerts.

Ashling “was the thoughtful one in our family” and the chief organiser of events, including trips to see Westlife.

“Everyone wanted to be in her company. I miss her smiling face coming home after her days work in school. Ashling and I never had a row. She was too nice, you could never have a row with her.”

“My heart broke the moment I heard the bad news that Ashling was murdered. It was like having a stroke, my heart was ripped from my body. My memory was affected. My motivation, drive and love for life is gone forever. There is such a void in our house and in our life, it is horrendous. I can’t bear it. I am no longer able for big crowds of people or small talk.”

Mrs Murphy said she does not go for a walk any more “as I am too afraid of that monster” whose actions “will always be in the back of my mind. “People say you are doing great but underneath I am just barely existing from day to day. People also say she is in a better place now. This I know, she didn’t want to go. It was not her time. She would want to be here on this earth with Ryan, our family and her first-class students, living life to the fullest.”

On the night the heartbreaking news of Ashling’s murder came to their door, Ashling’s untouched dinner was found in the bottom of the oven by her uncle Des, she said. “All the simplicities of life were destroyed in an instant and the sudden realisation dawned on us that she would never walk through the door of our home again.

“I would give our house, car and every penny I have to have our beautiful Ashling with us.”

Ashling would be alive today “if that evil, evil monster did not come upon her” in this “random, unprovoked attack. His actions must have consequences. He should never see the light of day again.

Mrs Murphy said, before Ashling left for school on January 12th, she was going for a jog on the canal line after work. “I begged her not to go there as it has always made me feel ill at ease and asked her to go jogging out near home. She responded, ‘Ah mum, I am 23 years old’. She gave me a big hug as she said, ‘I love you, you’re the best mum in the world’ and walked out the door.”

“As a parent you want your child to go out into this world and live a full and meaningful life yet being acutely aware of how fragile their safety is, wanting to protect them. I couldn’t protect my darling Ashling and now she’s gone forever.”

In her statement, Amy Murphy, Ashling’s older sister, said Ashling was “the glue that bound our tightly-knit family together” and “brought the best out of us”.

“Everyday, Ashling would bounce in the door asking “How’re we?” wearing her big friendly smile and beaming with positivity. She had such an endearing personality and was so generous with her time, her love and her talents, giving so much of herself to others.”

“Musicians of all ages were welcomed into our home every week to learn and absorb Ashlings talent and passion for music and listen to her stories, hanging on to her every word. The eerie quietness that now remains in the house is deafening.”

Ashling took pride in her appearance, loved her style and “quite literally could have bought shares in Zara”.

[ Who is Jozef Puska? From anonymous father-of-five to notorious killer ]

[ Malachy Clerkin: Ashling Murphy’s murder reminds us of the dread women feel in the world - now is the time to talk about what we can change ]

Ashling was “born to be a teacher and loved every second of it”, personified all the qualities any mother or father would want in their child’s teacher and, as a surprise, baked gingerbread men for each and every one of them at Christmas.

Ashling inherited her beloved grandad’s red car after he died, had a very special bond with him and on his last Christmas, he gifted her a pink woolly hat with a bauble on top. Both her red car and pink woolly hat were repeatedly referenced throughout the evidence given in this case, Amy said.

When they got the car back, there was a half-eaten slice of toast, half drank mug of tea and Ashling’s handbag, teaching supplies and a hurl sitting in the front seat. “All signs of a young woman preoccupied with the comings and goings of her busy, everyday life.”

Ashling “did not want for extraordinary things but had many plans for her future. Ryan was the love of her life and they intended to build a future together.” She had “no doubt Ashling would have been an exceptional mother too”.

“This country has lost someone who made a difference,” she said. “Muinteoir, sister, daughter, partner and friend. All accomplished before the tender age of 23..Ashling’s legacy of love, giving and caring will live on but that bears little comfort to us. We want her here safe in our arms today.”

It has been widely documented that Ashling’s murder was a watershed moment demanding an end to violence against women in Ireland, Amy said. “Ashling was described as the catalyst for change in society as we know it. Titles she did not ask for. Titles we wish on no daughter, sister or partner.”

“We still set our table for five people even though this world has changed for us in ways we could never before imagine. I have never felt hatred like this. We were not raised to be like this..but these actions against Ashling have permanently and indefinitely tainted our outlook on society forever more.”

Addressing Puska, she said: “Crossing a national border does not automatically instil a moral code in a person. You were given an Irish welcome and supported by the state to allow you to reside here. You repaid this by brutally murdering a beautiful talented girl who contributed so much to society.”

“Your lies and deceit knows no bounds. At no point did you make efforts to take responsibility for your actions,” she told him. “The trauma and suffering you have inflicted upon our family far outweighs any punishment you ever receive.”

Commending the Gardaí for “exhaustively and comprehensively piecing together a robust and thorough investigation”, she said the family were promised, after Ashling’s murder, “by those in positions of power that additional cctv would be installed in our local public spaces in Tullamore including the grand canal greenway” to ensure women could safely go about their daily lives. “These were empty promises that never came to fruition.”

Addressing Puska, she said: “You stole her life, you took her voice, you robbed us of our family of five.”

The family were “totally disturbed” by Puska’s demeanour as details of the autopsy report were read during the trial. “Smiling and smirking, you appeared to get some enjoyment out of hearing the harrowing evidence of Ashling’s injuries. Your total lack of empathy and remorse will forever haunt me and only reaffirms that evil is real, and it might be behind us at any point.”

“Seeing Ashling’s blood-soaked white T-shirt and GAA half-zip produced in court is a moment that will haunt me for the rest of my days.”

“The day Ashling died, an important piece of all of us died with her. Losing Ashling was the hardest, most devastating thing our family has ever been through, and we will never be the same. We have lost our motivation for life.”

“At night we cannot sleep, we are consumed by what can only be described as nightmares, replaying the horrific events of the 12th of January with an irrepressible feeling of guilt that we weren’t there to save her. ”

“This monster trespassed into our lives and stole the person most important to us in the most unforgivable way, “she said. “It is nothing short of pure torture thinking of the terror Ashling must have felt being thrown down into that deep dark undergrowth and that he was the last person she saw on this earth, the utmost evil she has ever encountered in her entire life. Hell, in my wildest imagination, doesn’t come close to the suffering that Ashling endured. Ashling died alone, petrified, frightened and injured by the malicious and inhumane brutalities of Jozef Puska.”

Nothing in this world “can ever bring our darling Ashling back and that is the cross we must carry for the rest of our days”, she said. “However, this sentencing will ensure no other family will suffer the loss of their loved ones at the hands of this man.”

“As a big sister, I could not protect her while she was alive, all I can attempt to do now is protect her memory,” she said. “Ashling was subject to incomprehensible violence by this predator who was not known to her. She never taught his children and did not report them to Tusla for neglect. These false narratives are both hurtful and damaging. This was a random unprovoked attack.”

The family must now endure years of life without Ashling but “will continue to set the table for five”. The gap is more than just her empty chair.. there is a constant palpable void in our family without Ashling. “Our family must now endure our own life sentence for which there is no parole.”

After today, she would “never, ever give Josef Puska the privilege that I am thinking about him”, she said. “However, I am and will forever be consumed by Ashling, her warmth, her beauty, the meaning she brought to life. That is both the hardest pill to swallow and the greatest honour I will wear in this life.”