{"id":384290,"date":"2026-03-14T04:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T04:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/384290\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T04:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T04:48:13","slug":"state-given-more-time-to-respond-to-jozef-puskas-appeal-submissions-over-ashling-murphy-murder-conviction-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/384290\/","title":{"rendered":"State given more time to respond to Jozef Puska\u2019s appeal submissions over Ashling Murphy murder conviction \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The State has been given more time to file its response to Jozef Puska\u2019s extensive appeal against his conviction for murdering schoolteacher Ashling Murphy<\/a>, after a court was told the killer\u2019s legal team was over a month late filing its paperwork.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Last December, Court of Appeal president Justice Caroline Costello set a hearing date of April 23rd and 24th for Puska\u2019s appeal against his conviction.<\/p>\n

Puska\u2019s lawyers told the court at the time that submissions were at \u201can advanced stage\u201d and noted two judgments were awaited from the Court of Appeal that were relevant to his own appeal.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 where he was allocated a solicitor, a senior counsel and two junior counsel.<\/p>\n

At the Court of Appeal on Friday, Kevin White, representing the Director of Public Prosecutions, said Puska\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The barrister asked for a date \u201cas close to the hearing date as possible\u201d to file the DPP\u2019s responding submissions, saying the appellant\u2019s submissions were \u201cvery long\u201d.<\/p>\n

A barrister standing in for Puska\u2019s lawyers apologised for the delay in filing the papers, which he said had been due to a \u201cmix-up\u201d. He also made an application for a Slovakian interpreter.<\/p>\n

Judge Isobel Kennedy noted the delay had created \u201cdifficulties\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

The judge also granted the application for the Slovakian interpreter.<\/p>\n

Before a jury was sworn to hear Puska\u2019s 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 garda\u00ed two days after the stabbing.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s decisions to allow those and other pieces of evidence to go before the jury are likely to form the basis of Puska\u2019s appeal.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The State has been given more time to file its response to Jozef Puska\u2019s extensive appeal against his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[61182,9,10,21031,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,3171,7,8],"class_list":["post-384290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ashling-murphy","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-court-of-appeal","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-offaly","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116225723800798502","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384290","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=384290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/384291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}