Ashling Murphy accused 'confessed', court told

Ashling Murphy was a primary school teacher and talented folk musician

A man accused of murdering a schoolteacher in the Republic of Ireland last year confessed to his involvement two days later, a court has heard.

Jozef Puska, 33, of Lynally Grove, Mucklagh in County Offaly, is charged with murdering Ashling Murphy.

Ms Murphy, who was 23, was fatally assaulted while jogging near Tullamore on 12 January 2022.

Mr Puska previously replied "not guilty" at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on Monday, through a Slovakian interpreter, when the charge was put to him.

The prosecution began outlining its case on Tuesday morning.

Ms Murphy's family was in court for the opening of the trial.

DNA under fingernails

The court heard from the prosecution that Ms Murphy was stabbed 11 times in the neck by Mr Puska, with whom she had no previous connection.

A prosecuting barrister told the jurors it would be understandable if they reacted to the killing of a young woman such as Ms Murphy with visceral revulsion.

However, she added that they were being asked to deal with the case from a cold, clinical, dispassionate perspective.

Jozef Puska, 33, denies murdering primary school musician Ashling Murphy

The prosecuting lawyer said Ms Murphy was stabbed 11 times to the right side of her neck. There was no other conceivable inference but that the person who did it intended to kill her or cause serious injury, she added.

She said Mr Puska was a Slovak national who had been living in Ireland since about 2012.

She added that the jurors would hear from two witnesses who came upon the attack.

The lawyer outlined the evidence would be that Mr Puska left his bicycle beside Ms Murphy's body and escaped from the scene through undergrowth.

She said briars and thorns at the scene by the canal would emerge as "significant" because Puska would later be found with cuts on his hands consistent with leaving via a route which avoided people on the canal.

The jury was told they would be shown pictures of wounds to Puska's hands, taken by gardaí (Irish police) while he was receiving treatment in St James's Hospital, Dublin, days after Ms Murphy's death.

DNA matching Mr Puska was detected underneath Ms Murphy’s fingernails, the lawyer added.

The jurors were told that police had harvested 25,000 hours of CCTV footage and they would see some of it.

The lawyer said the CCTV would show Mr Puska meandering through Tullamore on his bicycle on the morning of 12 January 2022.

It would also show him cycling slowly and in close proximity to two women.

One of the women would describe him staring at her and moving slowly behind her.

'I did it'

CCTV would also show Mr Puska arriving at his father's apartment in Crumlin in Dublin, in the early hours of 13 January, the court heard.

The prosecution said Mr Puska had fled Tullamore at that point.

The court heard he walked normally into the apartment.

However, the following morning he was taken out by paramedics into an ambulance.

He was now clean shaven, the lawyer said, and appeared to have suffered an injury.

At St James's Hospital, Mr Puska made it known he had been stabbed in Blanchardstown which the lawyer described as a pack of lies.

The court heard that on the evening of 14 January, through an interpreter, after Tullamore gardaí told him they were investigating Ashling Murphy’s murder, Mr Puska said: "I did it. I murdered. I am the murderer."

Mr Puska had said he did not do it intentionally. He felt guilty and he was sorry.

The court heard he later told another garda that when she passed [him], he "cut her".

"I cut her neck," he said, "she panic, I panic."

The prosecution said Mr Puska also pointed to his abdomen and said: "I do this."

The lawyer said the exact circumstances of Ms Murphy’s death were not known publicly at this time.

When he was interviewed by gardaí after his release from hospital, and shown a picture of Ms Murphy, Mr Puska said he had never seen her before.

The prosecution barrister said the evidence the jury would hear would allow them to be satisfied they could find Mr Puska guilty of murder.