Note from Editor: I have taken the decision, with Mr. Casey’s consent, to publish his statement/article on the sentencing of the Puska family in full, with no edits. Every word below is his.
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After taking some time to reflect and gather my thoughts on what unfolded in court yesterday during the sentencing of the Puska Family, I want to make some things very clear.
These people to the best of their ability helped the man who murdered my partner in cold blood.
These people burned the clothes of Jozef Puska, which were stained with my partner’s blood. They washed the ashes down their sink in an attempt to cover up for what Jozef Puska had done.
These people helped Jozef Puska in the initial hours after he murdered Ashling, knowing full well what he had done, driving him to Dublin to their parents’ house in order to build and fabricate a disgusting lie that they all were complicit in trying to spin.
These people repeatedly lied to An Garda Síochána and tried their living best to obstruct justice during the investigation in order to protect Jozef Puska.
These people attended court every day during the trial of Jozef Puska, fully supporting him, they displayed zero remorse for what he had done.
These people smirked, smiled, shook their heads throughout the entire trial back in 2023 and even when Jozef Puska was found guilty, they all stood up, started shouting and screaming in their own language their disagreement with the verdict. I was told in the aftermath that they were shouting “He is innocent”.
These people knew the gravity of the situation when Jozef Puska returned home to them on the night of January 12th, 2022 and they had a very clear choice to make.
1: Protect a man who had told them he had just murdered a woman, do everything you can to destroy any evidence and help build/fabricate a disgusting lie.
2: Be a good and decent resident of this state and do what any decent person or family would do and immediately report and turn him in to An Garda Síochána.
As we all know, they went with option 1 and tried their living best to carry it out right up until their very own guilty verdict.
That leads me to the sentencing in which they received yesterday……
My honest opinion and reaction when the verdicts were read out, especially after listening to the incredibly powerful, raw and emotional victim impact statements of Ashling’s sister Amy and dad Ray, I was utterly disgusted, extremely angry and yet again was taken back at how spineless, weak and tolerable the Irish justice system is when it comes to sentencing criminals who engage in such crimes that I have listed above…. I cannot help but ask myself why… maybe it’s down to the fact that our prisons are at 115% capacity….but that is absolutely no excuse in my book to be weak on crime!!
I was told in the aftermath that this was actually a better result than what was expected and that there was a given expectation that only the two brothers would face a small custodial sentence. This to me is an acceptance of a weak and spineless justice system, I refuse to accept this view, I will never accept it, in my opinion it is a dangerous and defeatist belief when it comes to punishing criminals and we have to challenge it!!
This was an opportunity to lay down a marker and to set a precedent to anyone else who dares to engage in such crimes or any crimes for that matter again and that they will be hit with a type of justice and a scale of justice that no criminal is prepared for!
But again, as always, the weak and spineless Irish justice system has failed yet another victim and another victim’s family which is becoming a notable trend in Ireland across various types of criminal cases might I add!
The Irish justice system needs a complete revisit and overhaul and needs to grow a backbone and begin to start rolling out tougher and harsher sentences to criminals in this country, the type of punishments and sentences that make criminals think twice before engaging in such crimes!
It would only be a piece to the puzzle towards making our country a safer place for our most vulnerable people and all people for that matter! The other issues will take time, but this can be done much sooner with tougher legislation coupled with stronger influence and guidance from our current minister for justice, Jim O’Callaghan who to be fair inherited a serious mess of a justice department so time will tell how he acts or if he acts at all.
We all know that sentencing decisions are constitutionally the responsibility of the judiciary which cannot be directly influenced by the justice minister, but judges must follow the law and legislation that is in place by the cabinet of the justice minister! Also, In my opinion, our judges in this country need to step up and be much much tougher on crime, especially against women and children!! I have seen and heard of far too many cases over the last few years where sentences and punishments have been nothing short of a disgrace to the victims and their families!
Lucia Puska was sentenced to 1 year and 8 months…
Marek and Lubomir Puska were sentenced to 2 years and 6 months…
Viera Gaziova was sentenced to 2 years…
Jozefina Grundzova was sentenced to 1 year and 9 months…
This January will mark 4 years since Ashling was taken from us…..where these 4 years have gone I will never know. Yet in roughly half that time again, all of these people will be back out on our streets again, in the midst of our society and most likely right back onto all of our welfare systems. This to me and to all of us is an absolute joke and really sums up this country right now.
I want to know why these people who came here over 10 years ago, who never bothered to work, who never bothered to contribute to society, who never bothered to integrate, who sponged off the welfare system, who tried their best as a family to cover up the murder of my partner, were then handed softball sentences and will all be backout and about within our society within 2.5 years, most likely 2 years with “good behaviour” and no doubt will all return to our welfare systems.
To add perspective to this, last year a man was sentenced to 2 years for selling dodgy boxes….
I want to know, and I am directly asking the justice minister to respond and answer this question. Why for people like this, who have been convicted of such crimes, are there no provisions that can be put in place for the immediate deportation of these people once their sentences have been served. They have proved themselves time and time again to be nothing other than a burden and a danger to our society, they clearly have no intentions of ever contributing, why should they be allowed to remain in a country in which they have taken so much from.
I want to also acknowledge and nip something in the bud and not allow anyone again to label me as something I am clearly not! I firmly believe that immigration is a good thing for this country. In our history we have welcomed a great deal of amazing immigrants who have come from all corners of the globe, who have brought their knowledge, their skills, their expertise, their education, their labour, and who have come here with the goal of building new life by working hard, contributing and integrating right into our society, who respected our society and our values and who are now a crucial part of our society.
We also in our history and rightly so, have taken in a great deal of asylum seekers. Genuine asylum seekers who are fleeing war torn countries and I am proud that we as country have done so. But this has only been successful and accepted by the large majority when our rate of immigration and rate of people seeking asylum was at a controllable and safe level and when we had the capacity and services in place to welcome these people, to protect these people here in a safe and decent manner and to integrate them into society in a proper manner.
What is happening right now and what has happened over the last 4 years is quite the opposite, that is not an opinion, it is simply a fact. We have taken in a record number of people into our country in a very short space of time, the likes of which we’ve never or had to deal with before. As a result of this, it simply wasn’t and simply isn’t possible to keep track of everyone who is coming here, to find out why they are coming here, if they are genuine or not, do they plan to integrate, are they solely here for economic reasons, have they any previous convictions or are they safe to be here, have we the capacity to house them, can we afford to fund all this without crippling the tax payer even further, etc…
Currently they are just being dropped into small towns and villages without any consultation with locals or any future plans of integration. This has all happened and is still happening at a time in which our own services are on the brink as we are dealing with many crises like the housing crisis, cost of living crisis, a strained health care system, crippling taxation on the working class, rising crime rates, record low Gardaí numbers, record number of Gardaí resignations, increased level of women around the country no longer felling safe and being ignored…. These are all legitimate concerns, which are the concerns of almost everybody I talk to from all walks of life and backgrounds etc… So, I do not accept this “Far Right” name calling that is being given to people who have legitimate concerns, especially when this term was being used on a regular basis by government party leaders which just amplified tensions and divisions! We all know that a majority of the people we are taking in are good and decent people. They are people fleeing war, they are people looking to come here to work and to build a better life.
But let’s not be foolish here and let’s recall what our current Taoiseach Micheál Martin said back in 1999, and I quote, “There is no place in our debates for the naive extremes of thinking we can manage any number of refugees”. Let’s also recall what our former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said in 2007, and I quote, “There is a number of foreign nationals committing large scale social welfare fraud”. All their words, not mine. What has happened to them since? Why have they and their parties completely flip flopped on this issue needs to be answered by them, but they had the courage at one stage in their political career speak the truth. Perhaps once they gained powered it corrupted their drive and moral compass?
We need to break down this barrier, we need to start having real conversations, we need to start listening to each other, we to start respecting opinions, we need to find a way forward that is respectful, that is peaceful and that fosters an environment and a society that isn’t afraid to voice its opinions without fear of being publicly shamed or labelled something they are not. If our current government adopted an approach like this, they would not be seeing what is unfolding this week in certain locations within the country!
I’m not going to go into any details of what’s currently happening in Ireland right now, we all know what’s going on, we all know what happened to that poor little girl, its disturbing on so many levels, it was completely avoidable too which makes it even more disturbing. The awful events that have unfolded this week, last week and over the course of the last 4 years in Ireland has been completely unacceptable! We are all utterly disappointed with the Irish Government. Many of the government leaders and the president of this country attended Ashling’s funeral in January of 2022. On a day that was so horrendously tough and painful for us all, that even still in the aftermath there was a small sense that given what had happened and the gravity of it and the fact that all of these political leaders attended, that this was going to be a watershed moment for a complete clamping down on the issue of actually protecting women and children with a zero tolerance approach in this country once and for all. What has unfolded in this country since then has been nothing short of a disgrace and a pure and utter disrespect to the overall safety of our women and children.
We truly need real leadership in this country! In my opinion we unfortunately will not be gaining any this week as both candidates are clearly backed and represented by many parties that are the problem and that have fed into, taken part in and helped create the issues I have just highlighted. All I’ll say is, this Friday we can all put in the effort, turn up to our polling stations, participate in voicing our anger together, our dissent and utter rejection of yet another government failure. See it as a stepping stone towards the larger picture. So, choose wisely and as a country we’ll go from there.
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Ryan Casey is the partner of Ashling Murphy, who was murdered by Jozef Puska on January 12th, 2022.