Ms Murphy, a 23-year-old primary school teacher, was stabbed 11 times in the neck by Puska while she was on an afternoon run in Tullamore, Co Offaly, on January 12, 2022 – three years ago tomorrow.
Her third anniversary mass is taking place tomorrow morning at 10am in St.Brigid’s Church, Mountbolus.
A commemorative walk will also take place tomorrow afternoon.
In November of 2023, Puska, of Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Co Offaly, was found guilty of her murder following a trial at the Central Criminal Court.
He received the mandatory life sentence for the crime.
Ashling Murphy was murdered on January 12 2022
Puska’s brothers, Marek Puska (35) and Lubomir Puska (36), and wife, Lucia Istokova (35), whose addresses cannot be published by court order, are accused of failing to disclose information to gardaí on a date unknown between January 12 and January 27, 2022, at Tullamore Garda station.
Jozefina Grundzova (34) and Viera Gaziova (39) are both accused of impeding the apprehension or prosecution of a person.
Free legal aid for senior and junior counsel was granted to all five defendants.
It’s understood the trials of the five accused are scheduled to get underway in the Courts of Criminal Justice on April 28.
Jozef Puska is currently incarcerated on a sex offenders wing on E-Division in the Midlands Prison.
Puska was not convicted of a sexual offence and his location on the wing is understood to relate to safety concerns.
In April of last year, Puska was granted legal aid to appeal his conviction for murdering school teacher Ashling.
Puska will be entitled to the same legal representation he had for his trial at the Central Criminal Court – a solicitor, senior counsel and two junior counsel.
Prior to a jury being sworn in to hear Puska’s trial, his lawyers made a number of objections to the evidence the prosecution intended to call.
The defence argued that the jury should not hear Puska’s confession to gardaí two days after the stabbing.
They said Puska was suffering the effects of abdominal surgery and was under the influence of the painkiller oxycodone, and his confession was therefore involuntary.
They also objected to the prosecution showing CCTV footage of Puska stalking two women in Tullamore town centre before heading to the canal where he came upon Ashling Murphy, walking alone.
The trial judge’s decisions to allow those and other pieces of evidence to go before the jury are likely to form the basis of Puska’s appeal.
Puska had pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Murphy at Cappincur, Tullamore, Co Offaly on January 12, 2022.
A jury convicted him by a unanimous verdict.
The jury found that Puska stabbed Ms Murphy 11 times in the neck and slashed her once with the edge of a blade before leaving her to die in the thick thorns and brambles by the side of the canal towpath between Tullamore town and Digby Bridge.
A monument now stands where Ms Murphy died.
Puska was placed at the scene by the presence of his distinctive green and black bicycle a few feet from Ms Murphy’s body.
He had been captured on CCTV cycling the same bicycle around Tullamore earlier that afternoon.
Puska’s DNA was found on the bike as was his fingerprint and his DNA was under Ms Murphy’s fingernails.
The prosecution argued that the DNA under her nails showed that Ms had scratched her attacker as she tried to save her own life.
When gardaí spoke to Puska the day after the murder, his face and hands were covered in scratches that were consistent with him crawling through the thorns and briars by the side of the towpath where he murdered Ms Murphy.
In his testimony to the trial, Puska claimed he was cycling along the towpath when he was attacked and stabbed by a masked man.
He claimed the same man then attacked and stabbed Ms Murphy before running away.
In what prosecution counsel Anne-Marie Lawlor SC described as a “foul and contemptible fabrication”, Puska claimed he then tried to help Ms Murphy by pulling her scarf up around the wound to her neck.
He said he realised he could not help her, and crawled through the briars to an adjoining field where he fell unconscious for about four hours.
The jury rejected his version of events.
No motive has been offered for the killing, and lawyers in the case and Ms Murphy’s family have stressed repeatedly that there was no connection between Puska and Ms Murphy, despite internet rumours.
