Hearing date for Jozef Puska’s appeal over Ashling Murphy murder conviction set for April
Fiona Magennis
A hearing date has been fixed for Jozef Puska’s appeal against his conviction for the murder of schoolteacher Aishling Murphy.
Puska killed Ms Murphy (23) on January 12th, 2022, by repeatedly stabbing her in the neck after attacking her while she exercised along the canal towpath outside Tullamore, Co Offaly. He was later convicted of murder and is serving a life sentence.
On Friday, Court of Appeal President Ms Justice Caroline Costello set a date of April 23rd and 24th next for Puska’s appeal against his conviction to be heard.
His case was one of 17 appeals listed for directions before Ms Justice Costello on Friday.
When the matter was called on, a barrister standing in for Mr Puska’s lawyers said this matter had previously been removed from the dormant list of appeals by Mr Justice John Edwards.
He said submissions are at an advanced stage, however two judgments in cases which are relevant in this appeal are awaited from the Court of Appeal.
Ms Justice Costello said “endlessly waiting” for other cases to be dealt with was not viable.
She asked how long the case was expected to take. The barrister said the matter may run into a second day.
Noting this matter dates back to November 2023, Ms Justice Costello said she was going to give the appeal a date for hearing.
“We need to start listing cases at this stage,” she said before setting a date of April 23rd and 24th, 2026, for Puska’s conviction appeal to be heard.
Puska, who told detectives that he stopped working in 2017 after slipping a disk in his back, has been granted legal aid for his appeal on the same basis as his representation during his trial at the Central Criminal Court, where he was allocated a solicitor, a senior counsel and two junior counsel.
Prior to a jury being sworn to hear Puska's trial in 2023, his lawyers made a number of objections to the evidence the prosecution intended to call. The defence argued that the jury should not hear Puska's confession to gardaí two days after the stabbing.
They said that Puska was suffering the effects of abdominal surgery and was under the influence of the painkiller oxycodone, rendering his confession therefore involuntary.
They also objected to the prosecution showing CCTV footage of Puska stalking two women in Tullamore town centre before heading to the canal where he came upon Ashling Murphy, walking alone. The trial judge's decisions to allow those and other pieces of evidence to go before the jury are likely to form the bases for Puska's appeal.
Puska (35), with an address at Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Co Offaly, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Murphy at Cappincur, Tullamore, Co Offaly on January 12th, 2022.
The jury found that Puska stabbed Ms Murphy eleven times in the neck and slashed her once with the edge of a blade before leaving her to die in the thick thorns and brambles by the side of the canal towpath between Tullamore town and Digby Bridge. A monument now stands where she died.
Puska was placed at the scene by the presence of his distinctive green and black bicycle a few feet from Ms Murphy's body. He had been captured on CCTV cycling the same bicycle around Tullamore earlier that afternoon, stalking two women before heading towards the canal.
Puska's DNA was found on the bike as was his fingerprint, while his DNA was under Ms Murphy's fingernails. The prosecution argued that the DNA under her nails showed that Ashling had scratched her attacker as she tried to save her own life.
When gardaí spoke to Puska the day after the murder his face and hands were covered in scratches that were consistent with him crawling through the thorns and briars by the side of the towpath where he murdered Ms Murphy.
In his testimony to the trial, Puska claimed that he was cycling along the towpath when he was attacked and stabbed by a masked man.
He claimed the same man then attacked and stabbed Ms Murphy before running away.
In what prosecution counsel Anne-Marie Lawlor SC described as a "foul and contemptible fabrication", Puska claimed that he then tried to help Ashling by pulling her scarf up around the wound to her neck.
He said that he realised he couldn't help her and crawled through the briars to an adjoining field where he fell unconscious for about four hours.
The jury rejected his version of events. No motive has been offered for the killing and lawyers in the case and Ms Murphy's family have stressed repeatedly that there was no connection between Puska and Ms Murphy, despite internet rumours of such a link.
Earlier this year, Puska’s two brothers were convicted of withholding crucial information from gardaí investigating Aishling’s murder, and their wives were found guilty of burning the killer’s clothes.
Puska’s brothers, Marek (36) and Lubomir (37), were each sentenced to 30 months in prison. Lubomir’s wife, Viera Gaziova (40), received a 24-month sentence, and Marek’s wife, Jozefina, was sentenced to 21 months.
Jozef Puska’s partner and the mother of his children, Lucia Istokova (36), was handed a 20-month prison term. She had pleaded guilty to withholding information in May of this year, before the start of her relative’s trial.
