The trial of the Slovakian national accused of the murder of schoolteacher Ashling Murphy heard today that he confessed his actions to Gardaí two days after the brutal attack.
The Central Criminal Court has been told by prosecuting barrister Anne-Marie Lawlor that Ms Murphy was stabbed 11 times in the neck by Mr Puska, and that there was no other conceivable inference but that the person who did it intended to kill her or cause serious injury.
Jozef Puska, 33, with an address in Mucklagh in Co Offaly, yesterday pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Murphy who was killed while out for a run at the Grand Canal in Tullamore on 12 January 2022.
Ms Lawlor said the Slovakian national had come to live in Ireland around 2012. The court heard that on the evening of 14 January, when questioned regarding Ms Murphy’s murder with the assistance of an interpreter, Mr Puska told Tullamore gardaí: “I did it. I murdered. I am the murderer.”
The prosecution said that Mr Puska claimed to gardaí that he had not murdered Ms Murphy intentionally, and that he was sorry. He said that when she passed him on the canal path he had “cut her.”
“I cut her neck,” he said, “she panic, I panic.”.”
There was no prior connection – direct or indirect – between Ashling Murphy and Mr Puska, Ms Lawlor told the court. They were not known to one another.
DNA matching that of the accused had been found underneath Ms Murphy’s fingernails, the barrister said.
She told the court that CCTV footage would show Mr Puska aimlessly meandering through Tullamore on his bicycle on the morning of the attack.
The jury were told they would also hear evidence from two witnesses who happened upon the attack, and that they would describe the assailant they witnessed.
Ms Murphy was a graduate of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick and was employed as a teacher at Durrow National School. She was also a well-known and popular traditional Irish musician.