Five family members involved in a cover-up of Jozef Puska’s actions in the immediate aftermath of his murder of schoolteacher Ashling Murphy have been jailed from between 20 months to 2½ years.
Puska is serving a life sentence for the murder of Ms Murphy (23) while she was out walking on the Grand Canal near her home in Tullamore on January 12th, 2022.
At the Central Criminal Court on Wednesday, Puska’s two brothers Lubomir Puska jnr (38) and Marek Puska (36) were each jailed for 30 months.
Their wives Viera Gaziova (40) and Jozefina Grundzova (32), were jailed for 30 months and 27 months respectively.
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All four were convicted last June after a jury accepted the prosecution’s case both brothers misled gardaí investigating the murder by failing to disclose crucial and vital information when they gave witness statements, including certain admissions by Puska, while their wives burned Jozef Puska’s clothes to impede his arrest or prosecution.
Puska’s partner, Lucia Istokova (36), a mother of five who before the trial opened pleaded guilty to withholding information from investigating gardaí, including that Puska had admitted to killing a girl, was sentenced to 26 months.
The sentences of all three women were suspended for six months after Ms Justice Caroline Biggs said it seemed to her, on foot of a psychologist’s report relating to the position of women in Roma culture, the women “did what they were told”. The report said the women had very limited education, were in their relationships since their late teens, did not work outside the family home and their lifestyle was nomadic, involving large families.
The maximum sentence for withholding information, the charges applicable to Puska’s partner and brothers, was five years. The maximum sentence for assisting an offender, the charges concerning the burning of Jozef Puska’s clothes, was 10 years.
Ms Murphy’s parents Ray and Kathleen, sister Amy, brother Cathal and boyfriend Ryan Casey were in the packed courtroom for the sentencing.
In his victim impact statement, Ray Murphy said a pink plastic fiddle that his music-loving daughter Ashling was given as a toddler, which she planned to pass on to her own children, remains in her bedroom “frozen in time”.
Ashling Murphy’s loss to her family “can never be measured” and their “inescapable” life sentence “was handed down to all of us by the monster that is Jozef Puska”, he said. Their “small consolation” that Puska “now rots in prison, isolated and alone” having been found guilty would have been robbed from them if the five members of his family had succeeded in hiding his guilt.
Ireland was “a better place” because of Ms Murphy and that would forever be her legacy but the defendants’ lives here were “built on a strong foundation of taking, never giving”.
The five knew that “one of their own” had murdered his daughter, did all possible to conceal what they knew and he prayed they would receive “the lengthy custodial sentences you deserve”.
Amy Murphy, who broke down while reading her statement, said the legal proceedings “are not and never will be victim-focused”.
Ms Murphy, after rereading her victim impact statement given at Jozef Puska’s trial, said the family has suffered an “immeasurable loss”. In choosing to assist the man responsible for Ashling Murphy’s murder, the defendants had demonstrated a “profound disregard” for her life and the pain their actions would cause.
“We ask that this gravity of loss and the consequences of their deliberate choices be fully recognised.” The fact the defendants have children was “not a reason for leniency” and being a parent “should not be a shield from accountability”.
Her family did not accept expressions of sympathy from the defendants, she said. “Their words carry no sincerity and meaning when measured against their actions.”
All five defendants had lived with their 14 children at the same address in Mucklagh, Tullamore, but, due to their isolation in that community after Ms Murphy’s murder, moved to emergency accommodation in Dublin.
The sentencing outcome means the children, aged from four to 15, will not have any parent to care for them but Tusla is satisfied appropriate arrangements are in place for their care, Ms Justice Biggs noted. They will be cared for by relatives.
In her decision, Ms Justice Biggs said the sentencing process “is not an act of vengeance” but about providing a constitutionally appropriate sentence taking into account culpability, the level of harm done, and mitigating factors.
She agreed with Amy Murphy these offences involved “a closure of ranks” by the defendants’ family and “a decision to say nothing, to lie, which was all to assist Jozef Puska in evading arrest”.
Their offences were not at the most serious end of the sentencing scale for reasons including Jozef Puska was apprehended and convicted, she said.
While the defendants’ actions had not helped the murder investigation, nor did they hinder it as Puska was convicted, she said. The offences were about seeking to protect a family member and were not done for reward or to assist a criminal gang.
Having initially withheld information, the defendants later made certain disclosures to gardaí. Some of those concerned Puska’s movements and admissions on the night of January 12th, 2022.
The judge took into account none of the five have previous convictions; are at low or moderate risk of reoffending; and will be separated from their children while in custody. Their apologies were another factor although she had no expectation Ms Murphy’s family would accept them, the judge said.
She took into account a probation report concerning Istokova that suggested some lack of accountability but noted the jury verdict on the trial of the other four defendants was accepted. Psychological reports that, among other things, noted their children are “blameless” were another factor.
Having set a headline sentence of 40 months, she reduced that by 30 per cent for Istokova to reflect her guilty plea and by 25 per cent for the other four.
