JOZEF Puska “admitted to murder” when gardai investigating the death of Ashling Murphy spoke to him two days after the 23-year-old schoolteacher was found dead beside a canal, a barrister has told the Central Criminal Court.
Anne-Marie Lawlor SC opened the case this morning for the prosecution before a jury of three women and nine men at the Central Criminal Court.
Jozef Puska has appeared in court
Teacher Ashling Murphy died last yearrefer to caption
Ashling Murphy was stabbed 11 times, the court heard todayPA:Press Association
She said that the evidence will show that Ashling suffered 11 stab wounds to the right side of her neck while she was out for a run after work on January 12 last year.
Ms Lawlor said a scientist from the Forensic Science Laboratories will give evidence that Y-STR DNA matching Mr Puska’s DNA was found under Ashling’s fingernails.
She said the prosecution will also rely on CCTV which she said shows Mr Puska in Tullamore in the hours before Ashling died, cycling slowly in close proximity to two other women.
She said that Mr Puska’s “distinctive” bicycle was found at the scene where Ashling’s body was found.
There will also be evidence, she said, that Mr Puska had cuts and scratches on “every exposed part of his body” which she said are consistent with him leaving the scene of the killing through the thick briars that surround the Grand Canal in Tullamore.
That was “the only way to leave without being apprehended by people on the canal who had come across Ashling’s body,” counsel said.
Two days after Ashling’s death, gardai spoke to Mr Puska at St James’s Hospital in Dublin.
He was there with stab wounds to his abdomen which he had said he suffered when he was attacked in Blanchardstown the previous evening.
‘A PACK OF LIES’
Mr Puska’s claims about being stabbed were “a pack of lies”, Ms Lawlor said, designed to conceal the truth of Mr Puska’s involvement in murdering Ashling.
While in hospital, Ms Lawlor said Det Gda Brian Jennings spoke to Mr Puska with the aid of a Slovakian interpreter who was on loudspeaker on the garda’s phone.
Ms Lawlor said the interpreter told gardai that Mr Puska “wants me to translate word for word what he is about to say.”
The interpreter then translated “I did it, I murdered, I am the murderer”, Ms Lawlor said.
Counsel added that Mr Puska continued: “I didn’t do it intentionally, I feel guilty and I am sorry.”
Ms Lawlor said this was Mr Puska “accepting responsibility for having murdered Ashling Murphy” and she later said that he had “admitted to murder”.
In a further exchange with a Detective Garda Fergus Hogan, Ms Lawlor said the accused told the garda in English that he was “sorry” and that he had never seen “the girl” before.
He also said that he had a knife that he used for the chain of his bike and “when she pass, I cut her neck, she panic, I panic. Will I go for ten years?”
Ms Lawlor said the cause of Ashling’s death had not been disseminated and Det Gda Hogan did not know that she had been stabbed in the neck.
She added: “The murderer knew, Mr Puska knew, and he told Det Gda Hogan how he affected her death.”
ARREST
When Mr Puska was questioned at Tullamore Garda Station following his arrest on January 18 last year, Ms Lawlor said he told gardai: “I didn’t see her, I don’t know her. I never saw her, first on this picture.
“I have never known her.”
Ms Lawlor said the evidence in the case will satisfy the jury that Mr Puska was the person who killed Ashling Murphy.
She added that the eleven stab wounds to the right side of her neck leave “no other inference but that the person who did it intended to kill her or cause her serious injury.”
Ms Lawlor explained to the jury that her opening speech is not evidence but a “roadmap so you are not sitting there, listening to witness after witness without any idea of how it all knits together.”
She said the evidence will consist of “different and diverse strands that we say will allow you to come to a verdict of guilty against Mr Puska.”
A jury of three women and nine men was sworn on Monday to hear the trial, one year and nine months after the 23-year-old is alleged to have been murdered near the Grand Canal in Tullamore.
Jozef Puska, 33, with an address at Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Co Offaly, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ashling at Cappincur, Tullamore, Co Offaly on January 12th, 2022.
His trial is continuing before the jury and Mr Justice Tony Hunt.
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