Man pleads not guilty to murder of schoolteacher Ashling Murphy

A man has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court to the murder of Ashling Murphy in Co Offaly last year.

The 23-year-old was working as a teacher at Durrow National School at the time of her death.

Jozef Puska (33), a Slovakian national with an address at Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Co Offaly, was arraigned on Monday on a charge of murdering Ms Murphy at Grand Canal Way, Cappincur, Tullamore on January 12th, 2022.

Mr Puska, wearing a grey jacket and trousers and a striped shirt, pleaded not guilty, through an interpreter, after the charge was read.

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A jury of nine men and three women was then sworn to hear the trial which will start on Tuesday morning before the jury and Mr Justice Tony Hunt.

Before the jury was selected, Mr Justice Hunt told the panel the case was scheduled to last four weeks but it might be “prudent” to allow for five weeks, which would bring the hearing up to November 17th.

The background to the case had attracted more than the usual share of publicity, he said. The jury system is very important but its integrity “depends at the end of the day on the integrity and on the honesty of jurors”, he said.

Mr Puska was entitled to a fair and open-minded jury, he said. If the publicity was such that jurors felt they cannot come to the case with an open mind, and try it solely on the evidence heard in the court and on the inferences they drew from that, they should not serve, he told the panel.

Mr Justice Hunt added that if they had at any point engaged in exchanges on social media of a kind which would mean someone could say they could not be of an open mind concerning this case, they should not serve.

Ann Marie Lawlor, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, earlier told the panel that most of the witnesses in the case would be from the Tullamore area. There would be a large number of Garda witnesses and others from the Forensic Science Ireland, counsel said.

Michael Bowman, for Mr Puska, said his client lived in Mucklagh and had a family connection in the area. Mr Puska had been in St James’s Hospital in January 2022, counsel added.

After the jury was selected, the judge repeated to them the case must be decided only on the basis of the evidence they hear in court.