{"id":147311,"date":"2025-10-27T05:45:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T05:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/147311\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T05:45:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T05:45:17","slug":"wife-of-evil-killer-jozef-puska-visited-him-almost-every-week-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/147311\/","title":{"rendered":"Wife of evil killer Jozef Puska visited him almost every week in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prison sources say Lucia Istokova, 36, forgave him for killing beautiful 23-year-old teacher Ashling Murphy\"07\/10\/2025Lucia Istokova, wife of Jozef Puska, arriving at Central Criminal Court(Image: Collins Courts)<\/p>\n

The wife of evil killer Jozef Puska<\/a> stood by him from the moment he told her he murdered Ashling Murphy<\/a> and visited him almost every week in prison, we can reveal.<\/p>\n

Prison sources say Lucia Istokova<\/a>, 36, forgave him for killing the beautiful 23-year-old teacher. Puska believes he has a good chance of winning his appeal, which is due to be heard soon. The mother of three, 36, was jailed on Wednesday for withholding crucial information from the Garda about the horrific crime.<\/p>\n

Puska admitted to her he killed Ashling but she withheld it from the investigation team. Lucia was a regular visitor to the Midlands Prison, where Puska was serving his life sentence from the moment he was arrested and convicted.<\/p>\n

It is understood she went to see him almost every week and sometimes brought the couple\u2019s children with her to see their dad. The family are only living a half an hour away outside Tullamore<\/a> \u2013 the place where her husband stabbed Ashling to death eleven times.<\/p>\n

She pleaded guilty to failing to tell cops Puska told her on the night of the killing on January 22, 2022, that \u201che didn\u2019t need to kill that girl\u201d and that he needed to get out of their home.<\/p>\n

\"JozefJozef Puska with his wife Lucia Itstokova<\/p>\n

She only passed on the information to gardai two weeks after the murder that shocked the nation. By that stage detectives had a DNA match for Puska and also a part confession from him in hospital. Her lawyers told Lucia\u2019s initial sentencing hearing a few weeks ago her life had imploded by what her partner had done and she wasn\u2019t honest to gardai because she was trying to protect her children.<\/p>\n

She was trying to comprehend how the man she believed to be a loving partner and devoted father had revealed to be a killer. But it has now emerged she is standing by her killer husband and visits him at the Midlands Prison every chance she gets.<\/p>\n

A prison source said: \u201cShe is in and out of here all the time and is a regular face in the visitor rooms. She has made it clear to us that she is standing by her man even if he is locked up for life.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe keeps him updated on all the family and what is going on at home. He seems to think that he will win his appeal and that a lot of the evidence that was heard during the murder trial should not have been admissible in court. His wife is very supportive of him despite what has happened and the seriousness of his crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Puska has been going to school most days at the Midlands Prison, learning English at the Irish taxpayers\u2019 expense. He was in a cell on his own but is understood to be sharing with another inmate because of the overcrowding at the jail.<\/p>\n

No date has been set yet for Puska\u2019s appeal although it was at one stage due to be heard before the end of this year. The prison source said: \u201cHe is going around telling everyone he is innocent and will be freed soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marek Puska and partner Jozefina Grundzova at the CCJ.(Image: Copyright Collins Photo Agency)<\/p>\n

His two brothers and their spouses were also jailed for trying to protect him after the murder. His brothers Marek, 36, and Lubomir, 37, got two- and-a-half years each for withholding information about Puska on the night of the murder and that he had returned to the family home before he fled to Dublin.<\/p>\n

Viera Gaziova, 40, received two years and one month in jail while Jozefina Grundzova, 35, got one year and nine months for burning the clothes the killer had on him at the time he killed Ashling.<\/p>\n

All six, including Puska, had been living in one house with 14 children under 16 years of age. All 14 children have been taken into care by Tusla.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: <\/strong>Sign up here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prison sources say Lucia Istokova, 36, forgave him for killing beautiful 23-year-old teacher Ashling MurphyLucia Istokova, wife of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,27,715,18,13,14,6,19,4723,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-147311","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-courts","11":"tag-crime","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-in-the-news","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115444549575952891","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}