The trial of four associates of murderer Jozef Puska was heard today before the Central Criminal Court.
All four accused maintain their innocence in respect of the charges they are facing.
The court heard that on the 26th of January 2022, the brother Jozef Puska, Marek Puska, was arrested by Detective Garda Lisa Shannon at an address at Marlborough Mews, Dublin 7 before being interviewed at Tullamore Garda station with the aid of a Slovakian interpreter.
Detective Shannon gave evidence that she arrested the accused on foot of suspicion that he may be guilty of a charge related to aiding a person guilty of a serious offence contrary to the Criminal Law Act 1997.
By the time this interview was conducted, the weapon used in the murder of Ashling Murphy had been recovered.
Puska said that before coming to Ireland, he and his two brothers, Jozef and Lubomir, had moved to Prague to find work, and that when he came to Ireland he had lived at an address at Churchill, Tullamore from 2015 -2021 before moving into the home of Jozef in Mucklagh, Tullamore.
He described how 20 people were living at this address, including himself and his wife and co-accused Jozefina Grundzova and their six children.
Also in the house were Jozef Puska, his wife Lucia Istakova and their six children. Lubomir Puska, his wife Viera Gaziova, and their three children.
He said that at one time he was unable to be with his wife for a period of four months because they had no home and that he had then come to Ireland “to arrange new living”.
He said that although Lubomir did not work, and Jozef was on disability, he himself had worked until her was “made redundant” due to the pandemic.
In the course of the interview he said he did not feel well, but agreed to continue and showed some discomfort due in part to Gardaí taking note of what he was saying. He said he was “uncomfortable that you are writing everything down”, and “I just want to explain my feelings”.
He said he felt “very uncomfortable” at having been arrested that morning.
When Gardaí told him they wanted to establish the truth, he said, “The truth is very important, we have to live by the truth, I have to live by that,”.
He described his life at home with his family members saying that the women would cook while he and his brothers often had coffee or beers while watching the television. He said Jozef was frequently “laughing and smiling” in the house.
He said that on the 12th of January, the day Ashling Murphy was murdered, he had woken up at around 12:30 and played with his children.
He saw Jozef’s wife, Lucia upstairs and noted that it was “strange” that Jozef had left the house without making it known to the rest of the family.
Later that evening he and Lubomir went into Tullamore, however he said he did not recall if the purpose of this was to look for Jozef, but that they had gone into a casino he frequented, and seen that he wasn’t there.
He described going home where “beans” were cooked for the children. He said he called his father in Dublin to ask if Jozef was there, but was told he was not.
Marek said he was concerned for his brother’s wellbeing as he had issues with discs in his back which he said would leave him “stay on ground” from pain.
He told Gardaí that he and Lubomir had gone to get cigarettes and that in the midst of this a call was received to say that Jozef had come “beaten up”.
Marek said when he got home he was “crying” because he is “sensitive” about his brother’s health, and he saw that Jozef looked “completely destroyed”, and was “shaking and wasn’t able to speak” .
He said he saw “three holes” in his brother’s body, but Jozef would not say what happened,“I will look after it myself”.
He said he wondered how he could have taken a shower with the “deep” injuries and wanted to call an ambulance but Jozef said no to this.
Marek said he told his brother in reference to whoever might have hurt him, “Don’t worry, we will bust him together with the police”.
At this point, the Puska parents were on the way from Dublin, with Marek telling Gardaí that he told his brother to “tell the truth” to them, before Jozef told him, “I did something”, before adding, “I don’t know if it was me or the other person there with me.”
He said that Jozef said that he had himself inflicted the wounds on his abdomen and that in the course of ”fighting back with his hand” his “hand hit somebody”.
He said that he “didn’t believe a word” and took 5 or 6 tablets to allow himself to have a “deep rest”.
He said the next morning himself, Jozef’s wife and two of their children had taken a train to Heuston Station in Dublin, after Jozef was taken to the capital by the brother’s parents.
He said that when they arrived at the parent’s address in Crumlin, they were not there.
During the second interview of his period of detention, which commenced at 16:19 hrs on the 26th of January 2022, Marek asked Gardaí to explain again what the penalties for assisting someone suspected of a serious crime were.
Gardaí reminded him that he could choose to change, at any time, his earlier decision not to have a solicitor present.
Asked again about the injuries on his brother’s abdomen, he said that Jozef told him“I probably did it to myself”, but that he did not believe him.
He said Jozef told him that “some woman” was shouting “don’t do that” and telling him not to harm himself.
He claimed that Jozef had said, “I might have had a knife in my hand” and “I might have hurt that person”.
Marek said Jozef had told him, “I could have cut her, maybe” before their mother had come into the room, and that Lubomir had also heard him say that.
He added that he told his wife, Jozefina, “It’s possible he hurt somebody” but that he didn’t believe it.
Marek told Gardaí, “I know what people think about Jozef and our family, I’m concerned about that.”
Asked why Jozef wore his jacket when he left with their parents for Dublin, he said it was common for the siblings to share clothes.
Asked what had happened to the clothes Jozef was wearing at the time of Ashling Murphy’s murder, he said he didn’t “want those clothes to stay at home because of something happened to him.”
“Even if he made confession to me, I wouldn’t accept that”, he said, adding, “Yes, he said something happened, he tried to hurt himself, and “he cut her”.
“He cut her” he told Gardaí adding, “she held her hand where injury happened” and he noticed “woman put her hand where she was hurt”.
Asked if the woman was alive in the end he said “I didn’t ask if she was alive”.
When asked what he had said to his wife, Jozefina about Jozef, he said, “I don’t know if I told her about Jozef’s three holes”.
When Gardaí put it to him that he told his wife that his brother “murdered that girl”, he said “yes” before adding, “No, he didn’t tell me directly that”.
“He probably not for sure killed somebody”, he said.
Asked how the family of Ms. Murphy must feel, he said “We felt sorry such a young girl had to die”.
When it was put to him that the clothes were burned because they had some connection to the death of Ms. Murphy, he said “yes”.
Asked if this was because it was believed that his brother may have been involved he said “yes, that was the idea”, and agreed that this was because the family did not want Jozef to be found by the police.
He said that Jozef and the women he had mentioned earlier “were fighting on the ground”.
When the Garda interviewer pointed out that, “Every few minutes there’s something new in the conversation,” Marek responded, “It keeps coming back”.
“She grabbed his hand and he hit her” he said, followed by “They fought on the ground”, and “He wanted to commit sucinde, she stopped him”.
In a subsequent interview, Marek said that he was “not assisting any offender” and answered a number of questions that were put to him again by a new interviewing member by saying he had answered “already”.
Asked what Jozef had said about the woman he had encountered on the day of Ashling Murphy’s death, he responded, “No, he didn’t say what exactly happened”.
He said he didn’t remember making a call to his father on the day of her death, after previously stating that he had only called his wife.
Asked how he had learned of Ms. Murphy’s death, he said that he had seen it on Facebook, but that he “didn’t go through, not much English”
When he was asked if he thought Jozef could have something to do with the murder he said, “No”, and that he “never mentioned her name”.
The trial continues tomorrow morning before Ms. Justice Caroline Biggs at the Central Criminal Court.