Ashling Murphy murder trial postponed until October

Ashling Murphy was a primary school teacher and talented folk musician

The trial of a man accused of murdering Irish teacher Ashling Murphy almost a year and a half ago has been postponed.

Ms Murphy, who was 23, was fatally assaulted while jogging near Tullamore, County Offaly, in January, 2022.

Jozef Puska, from Lynally Grove, Mucklagh in County Offaly, was due go on trial for her murder next month.

But it has been moved back to October to give the prosecution time to respond to an expert report submitted by Mr Puska's defence lawyers.

The 32-year-old defendant attended the pre-trial hearing at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin on Tuesday.

New date fixed

Prosecution barrister Anne Marie Lawlor told the court that her team wished to obtain a further report, in response to the submission by the defence.

She acknowledged that Ms Murphy's family had expected the case to proceed in June and that they were very keen for the matter to proceed "in early course". 

The judge asked if there was any prospect of attaining "an earlier report," but Ms Lawlor said there was not.

She said State prosecutors needed to identify an appropriate expert to conduct the report and that it should be completed by the middle or end of July.

Mr Puska's barrister said the defence could not stand in the way of the prosecution's application.

The judge agreed to Ms Lawlor's request to fix a new date of 2 October, 2023 for the trial to begin.

He also agreed to a defence request to renew an application for a Slovakian interpreter for their client to cover the new trial date.