A jury is expected to begin considering its verdict later this week in the trial of a man accused of the murder of Ashling Murphy in Co Offaly early last year.
Jozef Puska has denied the murder of the 23-year-old schoolteacher at Grand Canal Way, Cappincur, Co Offaly, on January 12th, 2022. Ms Murphy died after being stabbed 11 times in the neck which severed her voice box, led to acute blood loss and caused her heart to stop.
Mr Puska (33), a native of Slovakia living in Mucklagh, Co Offaly, some eight years with his wife and five children, pleaded not guilty when arraigned on the murder charge at the Central Criminal Court on October 16th.
The jury of nine men and three women heard evidence over 13 days from 62 witnesses and from Mr Puska.
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Ms Murphy’s parents Ray and Kathleen, her sister Amy and brother Cathal, were back in a packed courtroom 13 on Tuesday for closing speeches from the prosecution and defence. Members of Mr Puska’s family, including his parents, were also present.
In her closing address for the DPP, Anne-Marie Lawlor SC said there is “overwhelming” evidence that Mr Puska is guilty of murder.
Mr Puska, she said, confessed to the murder when he was in St James’s Hospital two days later, having lied about being stabbed in Blanchardstown on January 12th.
Some things had been introduced into the case to suggest “some kind of question mark” over his confession but it was never suggested or claimed those words were not said, she said.
Evidence that DNA under Ms Murphy’s fingernails matched DNA profiles of Mr Puska showed that Ms Murphy was “an investigator in her own murder”, counsel said.
Mr Puska, she said, has since “fabricated” a “farcical, contemptible” story that he did not kill Ms Murphy and was instead at the crime scene as a “Good Samaritan”.
“He killed her, he killed her brutally by inflicting stab wounds upon her,” counsel said.
Mr Puska, counsel said, fled the scene, hid in a ditch afterwards, stabbed himself and “told lies after lies after lies”.
Mr Puska had admitted he killed Ms Murphy and then “pivoted” and had spun “lies and mistruths”, “some foul and contemptible in their nature”, she said.
He has done all that in the hope and belief, which the prosecution hopes is “forlorn”, to stop you concluding he murdered Ashling Murphy, counsel told the jury.
Ms Lawlor said Mr Puska is an “inveterate liar” and the evidence established he had lied about being a Good Samaritan who came across Ms Murphy after she was stabbed.
Mr Puska had spoken about some black clothed man as the attacker, a man who has never been seen before or since, counsel said. The evidence was Mr Puska had “burrowed” through undergrowth to get away from the scene after two female runners came across him and he had stayed in a ditch until 8.55pm that night, she said.
Mr Puska had given a “farcical” story about being himself stabbed down the canal and he himself told the jury he ordered his clothes to be burnt and shaved off his beard, she added.
In his closing speech, Michael Bowman SC, for Mr Puska, said there is a question whether Mr Puska was in a fit state to be interviewed by gardaí when in hospital on January 14th, 2022.
Gardaí “simply sidestepped” the treating doctors and dealt with nurses, he said.
The defence had to “prise” from a detective the interview was broken off because of the state Mr Puska was in, he said. “That begs the question whether he was fit to start with.”
Undoubtedly, Mr Puska drew suspicion upon himself in how he behaved in the immediate aftermath of the attack on Ms Murphy, counsel said. “Had he chosen to go on to the canal footpath rather through fields we would not be where we are today.”
The prosecution had taken a different approach to Mr Puska’s state of mind and reliability than to the state of mind of another man who claimed, via an email sent to the Garda press office on January 17th, to have murdered Ms Murphy, he said.
The investigation team accepted that man’s explanation of being sick, that he could not remember sending the email, must have been drunk, had not murdered Ms Murphy and was not capable of doing so, counsel said.
Mr Puska, who was in hospital on medication on January 14th 2022, had said he could not remember the engagement with gardaí that day, counsel said.
“There are things that are said that are untrue including admitting to murder by people who are not guilty,” counsel said.
The jury should be careful about arriving at a position with a closed mind when addressing the issues, he said. The arrest of another man on the day Ms Murphy’s body was found was “a stark reminder” of that, he added.
Mr Puska had volunteered information he had asked for the clothes he wore on January 12th to be burnt. If he is “this arch criminal who has spun a tapestry of lies”, why would he say that, counsel asked
Mr Bowman said some witnesses gave evidence about timings of certain matters which could not be right. There was a conflict between the evidence of two women runners who came upon the crime scene, he said.
The jury should be careful about accepting the prosecution arguments that the lies told by Mr Puska were indicative of his being guilty of murder, counsel urged. People had lied on two occasions in this case to protect their family and the jury should not brush aside Mr Puska’s account of events so easily, he said.
He told the jury, when they stress test the evidence, they will find they cannot bring in a verdict of guilty in accordance with the evidence.
Beginning his charge to the jury, Mr Justice Tony Hunt said the presumption of innocence applies to Mr Puska and can only be set aside if the jury is satisfied the prosecution has proven its case beyond reasonable doubt. The jury must not be affected by considerations of sympathy for Ms Murphy and her family or by other considerations including, race and ethnic origin, he said.
There is no evidence of any kind whatsoever of any connection between Ms Murphy and Mr Puska and he did not know where any such suggestion may have come from, the judge said. Social media opinions have nothing to do with this case which must be decided on evidence before the court, he added.
At 4pm on Tuesday, the judge told the jury he would continue his charge on Wednesday.
“At the end of the day, you have to decide what happened in this ditch, this gripe, this area of vegetation on that January afternoon,” he told the jurors.
