Man treated for stab wounds day after Ashling Murphy’s death, paramedics tell court

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

A man was treated for stab wounds in Dublin the day after Ashling Murphy’s death in Co Offaly, paramedics have told a Dublin court.

Ms Murphy, 23, was killed along a canal walkway in Tullamore at around 3.30pm on January 12th last year.

Jozef Puska, 33, of Lynally Grove in Mucklagh, Tullamore, has pleaded not guilty to the primary school teacher’s murder.

Three paramedics gave evidence on Monday at the Central Criminal Courts, day five of the trial before a jury of three woman and nine men.

Conor Mackey, a firefighter based at Dolphin’s Barn in Dublin, told the court he was on duty on January 13th, when he received a call at around 11am that someone had been stabbed.

Mr Mackey said he and his colleague went into an apartment block in Crumlin, and were led to a bedroom in the apartment.

He told the Central Criminal Court that he saw a man hunched over a locker with what appeared to be three wounds across his chest.

Prosecuting barrister Anne-Marie Lawlor SC told the court that the “patient is Puska”.

“We had been told going to the case that it was a stabbing incident,” Mr Mackey told the court.

Mr Mackey said they moved the man onto the bed to make an assessment.

He said there were three stab wounds of some description, and that they did not appear to be fresh wounds.

The blood was dried in at that stage, and the wounds were not actively bleeding, he told the court.

Neil Cusker, an advanced paramedic, said when he attended the scene in the Crumlin apartment on January 13th, “it looked to me like (the man) was in pain”.

He said that, as far as he could remember, the man was not wearing a top and had a pair of tracksuit bottoms on.

He told the court that he checked the man from head to toe, and saw three “small puncture wounds” on his torso that did not look fresh, in his view.

He said that the man also had scratch marks across his head and his hands.

Rian Finch told the court she was on an internship with the National Ambulance Service when she attended the scene at the apartment in Crumlin on January 13th.

The now fully-qualified paramedic said she saw the patient propped up on a bed with injuries that were not “particularly large”.

She said they were very clean wounds that were not actively bleeding.

She described seeing wounds to the man’s head and both arms as “superficial wounds” that “appeared to be like scratches”.

“All I recall is that he didn’t make eye contact with me,” she said.