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Women Tells Court Man Was Cycling Close To Her In Ashling Murphy Murder Trial

Monday, 23 October 2023 16:57

33-year-old Jozef Puska denies murdering the schoolteacher.

A woman has told the Central Criminal Court that a man was cycling slowly and close to her on the day schoolteacher Ashling Murphy died.

33-year-old Jozef Puska, of Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Co. Offaly, denies murdering Ms Murphy along the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore on January 12th, 2022. 

Anne-Marie Kelly told the jury that she first noticed a man who she felt was cycling close to her close to McDonalds in Tullamore on January 12th 2022. 

She said she stepped in to let him by, but he wouldn’t pass. She told the jury she felt very uncomfortable.

She added he eventually went by her after she stopped to look at her phone, and claims she caught him staring at her. 

She claimed she later saw him again along the Grand Canal.

Under cross-examination, Defence Barrister Michael Bowman put it to Ms Kelly that Mr Puska had looked back at her, but wasn’t staring, which she replied it was her recollection that he was.

Earlier, the jury heard from firefighter Conor Mackey, who was called out to an apartment block on the Armagh Road in Crumlin at around 11:00am in the morning of January 13th, 2022. He claimed Jozef Puska was hunched over a bedside locker with what appeared to be three stab wounds to the abdomen.

He was cross-examined by the defence where Mr Mackey described Mr Puska as not actively bleeding.

The trial continues tomorrow morning.

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