The lawyer who represented Ashling Murphy’s killer Jozef Puska was the top-paid criminal legal aid barrister in Ireland last year, receiving €772,911 in legal aid payments in 2023.
Senior Counsel Michael Bowman was the country’s highest paid criminal legal aid lawyer last year, having also represented Yousef Palani (23) who was convicted of murdering Aidan Moffitt and Michael Snee in Sligo back in April 2022.
Palani was given two life sentences for the “unspeakable” murders, after the court heard that one murder victim was decapitated with 43 stab wounds, while the second man suffered 25 stab wounds, mainly to his head, chest and neck.
Puska, meanwhile, was sentenced to the mandatory term of life imprisonment for the murder of talented school teacher Ashling Murphy (23) whose brutal killing shocked the nation. Ms Murphy, a traditional musician, was stabbed 12 times as she jogged along the canal in Tullamore by Puska. Handing down the sentence in November, the court heard that Puska had “spun” a story of “foul and contemptible” lies for the sake of the jury.
Leading Puska’s defence team, Michael Bowman SC told the jury that lies were not necessarily evidence of guilt, claiming that the details of the case were “not as straightforward as the prosecution would have you believe”.
During the trail, the leading lawyer suggested that Puska had come across Ms Murphy and was “trying to assist” her.
Mr Bowman urged the jury to be careful not to assume that lies were indicative of a person’s guilt, saying that while lies can attract suspicion, they were of no other value to the trial. Delivering his defence, he said that people can lie for a range of reasons, including innocent people because they are afraid others will not believe them, or because they are embarrassed, confused, or panicked.
“Can you really push Mr Puska’s version aside that easily?” he asked.
The top lawyer’s criminal legal aid fee income averages out at a weekly fee income of €14,863. The figures, released by the Department of Justice, showed that lawyers received a record payout in criminal legal aid payments last year.
Michael Bowman SC also represented Donegal man Richard Burke (33) who was jailed last Spring for the murder of his on-off partner Jasmine McMonagle. Ms McMonagle (28) was beaten and strangled to death by Burke, while she was at home with her two children.
Burke was found not guilty of murder but guilty of her manslaughter, with the court hearing that the responsibility for the young mum’s killing was substantially diminished by Burke’s mental disorder.
The aggregate pay to solicitors and barristers in Ireland totalled €84.91 million last year – a €12.8 million increase on 2022. Payments to barristers also rose by 28 per cent from €30.62 million to €39.25 million, while criminal legal aid payments to solicitors rose by ten per cent, to €45.66 million.
The detailed figures show that solicitor Eoin Lysaght, who was assigned legal aid to represent Jozef Puska, last year was paid €294,260 in criminal legal aid payments.
Keith Spencer BL received the second highest amount in legal aid payments, totalling €765,954. Dominic Stewart McGinn SC was also in the top five, receiving €486,183, while Seamus Clarke SC received €481,228, and Coleman Cody SC received €445,020.
The top-paid criminal legal aid solicitor was Wayne Kenny, who earned €882,074. He was followed by Aonghus McCarthy, who was paid €704,010; Kenneth Cunningham who received €669,347; Michael Hennessy who was paid €660,065, and John M Quinn, who received €657,947 in criminal legal aid.
The statistics also show that the late Ian Bailey’s long-time lawyer, Frank Buttimer, was paid €401,153 in criminal legal aid.