Ashling Murphy trial hears that accused told gardaí: ‘I did it, I murdered, I am the murderer’

A man on trial for the murder of schoolteacher Ashling Murphy told gardaí, through an interpreter: “I did it. I murdered. I am the murderer”, a jury at the Central Criminal Court has been told.

The prosecution case is that Jozef Puska made that admission in St James’s Hospital in Dublin two days after Ms Murphy was attacked while she was exercising on the Grand Canal near Tullamore, Co Offaly on January 12th, 2022, Anne Marie Lawlor SC, for the DPP, outlined.

The jury will also hear Mr Puska that had said he was sorry, he did not do it intentionally, counsel said.

He had said: “I’m sorry, I see girl I never see before. I have knife I use for chain. When she pass, I cut her, I cut her neck, she panic, I panic. Will I go for 10 years?”

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Mr Puska and Ms Murphy were not known to each other at all before this, counsel said.

Ms Murphy was stabbed 11 times to the neck by Mr Puska and there was no other conclusion from the evidence but that this was an intentional act of murder, she said.

Ms Lawlor said this was “hugely significant” evidence, Mr Puska was “accepting responsibility for having killed Ashling”.

There was also CCTV evidence, DNA and witness evidence to support the prosecution case against Mr Puska, including cuts and scratches wholly consistent with his having left the scene where Ms Murphy was killed, she said.

The prosecution case is that he made up “a pack of lies” about his being stabbed in Blanchardstown to conceal the fact he had killed Ms Murphy, she also said.

The evidence was that, in the hospital, where he had been admitted with stab wounds, Mr Puska had pointed to his abdomen “where there had been this apparent stabbing” and said: “I do this”, she said.

Counsel was opening the trial of Mr Puska (33), a Slovakian national with an address at Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Co Offaly who, through an interpreter, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Murphy (23) at Cappincur, Tullamore on January 12th 2022.

Ms Murphy’s parents, Raymond and Kathleen, her sister Amy and brother Cathal, were all in court when the trial got under way this morning before Mr Justice Tony Hunt and a jury of nine men and three women.

Mr Puska, wearing a grey jacket, grey trousers and striped shirt, was seated, alongside an interpreter, opposite the jury.

Prior to the opening of the trial, Mr Justice Hunt told the jury counsel do not give evidence during a trial and the jury must decide the case on the evidence, from witnesses, they would hear in court.

The presumption of innocence is the starting position, it applies to Mr Puska and that position is maintained through the case, he said.

Outlining the prosecution case, Ms Lawlor, with Kevin White BL, and Gary Keane BL, said Ashling Murphy was, at the time of her death, aged 23 and working as a primary teacher in Durrow, Co Offaly.

She had gone for some exercise on the canal near her home on January 12th 2022 and was killed about 3.30pm, she said.

Mr Puska was charged with murder which is unlawful killing with the intention to kill or cause serious injury, she said. Ms Murphy was stabbed 11 times to the side of her neck and the prosecution will say the person who did it intended to kill or cause her serious injury, she said.

Mr Puska is from the Slovak Republic, counsel said, adding she was only saying that because they would hear during the evidence there were certain interventions where an interpreter was present.

Mr Puska had lived in Ireland since about 2012, in Mucklagh, about six kilometres outside Tullamore, she said. There was no prior connection between him and Ms Murphy, they did not know each other, she said.

The evidence was that Ms Murphy was killed on a stretch of canal concrete footpath with a grass verge to a ravine completely covered with briars and brambles, she said.

That is significant because Mr Puska had cuts on pretty much every exposed part of his body consistent with him leaving the scene through dense undergrowth, she said.

Nobody was there at the commencement of the attack but there will be evidence two witnesses who came on the scene, including that they could see her legs kicking, she said. There would also be evidence from people who came on the scene shortly afterwards and from emergency paramedics who attended the scene quickly and of efforts to resuscitate Ms Murphy but she was dead.

A Garda investigation started and the jury would hear from a Garda how an eye witness had identified a person arrested as a person they had seen on the canal. That person was not Mr Puska and it quickly emerged that person did not have an involvement, counsels aid.

There was “very significant” other evidence as to Mr Puska being the assailant, counsel said.

Ms Murphy had died from 12 sharp force injuries, eleven stab wounds to the right side of her neck and other injuries, she said. “You are going to have to decide who did this, who killed Ashling,” she told the jury. “If you stab someone eleven times to the neck, that is likely to kill or cause serious injury.”

Counsel said a bicycle was left beside her body, a somewhat distinctive one, she said. The prosecution case was that Jozef Puska left his bicycle, a Green Falcon Storm, beside the scene of the crime and that his DNA was on the handlebars and on the saddle.

The jury will hear DNA samples were taken from Mr Puska and the prosecution case is that, under Ms Murphy’s fingernails was DNA that matched that of Mr Puska with a one in 14,000 chance of that being someone else.

Gardaí had harvested about 25,000 hours of CCTV and were able to provide a chronology of relevant movements of Mr Puska, she said. Ms Murphy was killed about 3.30pm on January 12th 2022 and about 12.25pm that day, Mr Puska is seen coming from the direction of his home. He is seen on CCTV, not continuously, but until about 2.05pm, cycling around Tullamore, she said.

It was for the jury to decide on his movements but the prosecution will say there is “aimless meandering through Tullamore over 90 minutes, she said.

On two occasions, the jury will see Mr Puska in close proximity to two women, she said. One of the woman goes into a shop and was “blissfully unaware” of the manner in which he was cycling behind her, she said. Another woman had told gardaí she became aware a man was cycling slowly behind her and described him staring at her, she said.

It is accepted the person cycling the bike is Jozef Puska, she said.

The CCTV also shows the movement of a person coming back into Tullamore about 8.55pm that evening, she said.

The prosecution case is that Mr Puska left Tullamore that night, that he is seen at the front door of his parents’ house in Crumlin in the early hours of January 13th and seen leaving there clean shaven at 11.56am on January 13th apparently having suffered an injury, she said.

The evidence will be that Mr Puska is brought to St James and he had said he was stabbed in Blanchardstown where there had been a stabbing the previous evening, she said.

Gardaí from Blanchardstown went to St James to ask him about the Blanchardstown incident and a Garda noted the “very cut, scratched” hand of Mr Puska and had photographed that.

Gardaí in Tullamore were contacted for reasons including that Mr Puska had come from Tullamore, she outlined.

He had had surgery on the night of January 13th and gardaí from Co Offaly spoke to him the following day, counsel said.

One Garda said he was from Birr and Mr Puska had told him he was from Mucklagh and that he came up from Tullamore, got a lift to Heuston station and a taxi to Blanchardstown to meet a woman and was jumped on when he got out of the taxi, counsel said.

On the evening of January 14th, a Garda had obtained a search warrant to take items from Mr Puska, counsel said.

The prosecution case is there was an admission to murder by Mr Puska, there was an interpreter on the phone who told gardaí that Mr Puska wanted him, the interpreter, to translate word for word what he was about to say and he had said: “I did it, I murdered, I am the murderer.”

Mr Puska had said he did not do it intentionally, he felt guilty, and was sorry and he had referred to having five children, she outlined.

Earlier, at the outset of her address, Ms Lawlor said would set out a roadmap for the jury to give an indication what the case is about and would allow them knit strands of evidence together to return a guilty verdict.

Mr Puska is presumed innocent of the charge of the murder of Ashling Murphy, she said. The burden of proof rests on the prosecution to prove the case by calling evidence against Mr Puska. If you are to be satisfied he is guilty, have to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt, she said.

The trial continues and is listed to last four weeks.