Jozef Puska appeal hearing delayed as murderer changes barristers

Fiona Magennis

Jozef Puska's appeal against his conviction for the murder of schoolteacher Ashling Murphy has been postponed after he decided to change his barristers less than a week before the hearing was due to begin.

Puska killed Murphy (23) on January 12th, 2022, by repeatedly stabbing her in the neck while she exercised along the 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 are relevant to his own appeal.

Puska, who told detectives that 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, Karl Monahan, with Michael Bowman, representing Puska told Justice Isobel Kennedy, presiding, that owing to instructions given by Puska to his solicitor, “it has become necessary to make an application seeking to withdraw from the case”.

He said Puska’s solicitor has engaged a new senior counsel who is in a position to come into the case but is not in a position to go ahead with the appeal hearing scheduled to start next Thursday, April 23rd.

Monahan said he thought it “expedient” to bring the matter to the attention of the court “at the earliest opportunity”. He said all counsel involved in the case required to be released but Puska’s solicitor remains instructed.

“He has spoken to him and engaged an alternative senior counsel,” said Monahan. “He expects that counsel will follow in due course.”

Monahan confirmed to Justice Kennedy that this would impact on the scheduled hearing date.

Asked by Justice Kennedy if Puska - who was not present in court on Friday - was aware of “all of this”, Monahan said it was “on his [Puska’s] instructions”.

Counsel for the Director of the Public Prosecutions (DPP), Anne-Marie Lawlor, told the court the DPP’s legal team were in a position to proceed, adding it was their preference to go ahead with the hearing, and Murphy’s family were “anxious” to see the case proceed.

She noted the matter had been set down for two days.

She said she understood the position that Monahan and Bowman found themselves in, but wished to avoid a situation where the matter was “left over” until the hearing date next week.

Lawlor said the case experienced delays and had taken a “considerable amount of time” to come to hearing.

Noting that “unfortunately there is little possibility” of the matter proceeding next week, owing to the “late change of hands”,  Justice Kennedy vacated the hearing date.

The judge listed the matter for next Friday, April 24th, and said she intended to give it “the earliest hearing date possible”.

Puska’s solicitor said he would hope to be in a position to update the court next week.

“I’m going to be fixing a date for this next Friday one way or the other,” the judge responded.

Last month, the DPP’s barristers were given more time to file their response to Puska’s extensive appeal against his conviction after it was revealed that the killer’s legal team were over a month late filing their paperwork.

Puska’s submissions were due to be filed by January 16th, but were only received by the State in early March.

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”.

Puska (35), with an address at Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Co Offaly, pleaded not guilty to murdering Murphy at Cappincur, Tullamore, on January 12th, 2022.

The jury found that 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.

Puska was placed at the scene by the presence of his distinctive green and black bicycle a few feet from Murphy's body. He was captured on CCTV cycling the same bicycle around Tullamore earlier that afternoon, stalking two women before heading towards the canal.

Puska's DNA was found on the bike as was his fingerprint, while his DNA was also under Murphy's fingernails.

The prosecution argued that the DNA under her nails showed that Ashling had scratched her attacker as she fought to save her own life.

When gardaí spoke to Puska the day after the murder, his face and hands were covered in scratches consistent with him crawling through the thorns and briars by the side of the towpath where he murdered Murphy.

In his testimony to the trial, Puska claimed that 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 Murphy before running away.

The jury rejected his version of events. No motive has been offered for the killing and lawyers in the case and Murphy's family have stressed repeatedly that there was no connection between Puska and Murphy, despite internet rumours of such a link.

In June 2025, Puska’s two brothers were convicted of withholding crucial information from gardaí investigating Aishling’s murder, and their wives were found guilty of burning the killer’s clothes.

Puska’s brothers, Marek (36) and Lubomir (37), were each sentenced to 30 months in prison. Lubomir’s wife, Viera Gaziova (40), received a 24-month sentence, and Marek’s wife, Jozefina (32), was sentenced to 21 months.

Jozef Puska’s partner and the mother of his children, Lucia Istokova (36), was handed a 20-month prison term. She had pleaded guilty to withholding information in May last year, before the start of her relative’s trial.

All five were living with Jozef Puska and 14 children at the address at Lynally Grove in Mucklagh when the offences occurred in January 2022.