The State has been given more time to file its response to Jozef Puska’s extensive appeal against his conviction for murdering schoolteacher Ashling Murphy, after a court was told the killer’s legal team was over a month late filing its paperwork.
Puska killed Murphy (23) on January 12th, 2022, by repeatedly stabbing her in the neck along a canal towpath outside Tullamore, Co Offaly. He was later convicted of murder and is serving a life sentence.
Last December, Court of Appeal president Justice Caroline Costello set a hearing date of April 23rd and 24th for Puska’s appeal against his conviction.
Puska’s lawyers told the court at the time that submissions were at “an advanced stage” and noted two judgments were awaited from the Court of Appeal that were relevant to his own appeal.
Puska, who told detectives he stopped working in 2017 after slipping a disk in his back, has been granted legal aid for his appeal on the same basis as his representation during his trial at the Central Criminal Court – where he was allocated a solicitor, a senior counsel and two junior counsel.
At the Court of Appeal on Friday, Kevin White, representing the Director of Public Prosecutions, said Puska’s submissions had been due to be filed by January 16th but were only received by the State in early March. He told the court he would need time to respond.
The barrister asked for a date “as close to the hearing date as possible” to file the DPP’s responding submissions, saying the appellant’s submissions were “very long”.
A barrister standing in for Puska’s lawyers apologised for the delay in filing the papers, which he said had been due to a “mix-up”. He also made an application for a Slovakian interpreter.
Judge Isobel Kennedy noted the delay had created “difficulties” for the DPP. She extended the time for the State to file replying submissions to April 14th, and said the hearing date in April would be maintained.
The judge also granted the application for the Slovakian interpreter.
Before a jury was sworn to hear Puska’s trial in 2023, his lawyers made a number of objections to the evidence the prosecution intended to call. The defence argued the jury should not hear the confession made by Puska 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 at the time, rendering his confession 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 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 (35), with an address at Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Co Offaly, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Murphy at Cappincur, Tullamore, on January 12th, 2022.
The jury found Puska stabbed 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 she died.