Murder of Ashling Murphy ‘a monstrous crime that shocked the nation’, senior garda says

A senior garda has praised the force’s investigation into the murder of Ashling Murphy, which he described as “a monstrous crime that shocked the nation”.

Speaking outside the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin on Friday after Jozef Puska was sentenced to life for murdering the 23-year-old teacher, Chief Supt Anthony Lonergan paid tribute to the team that investigated the crime, the community in Tullamore, Co Offaly and the Murphy family.

He said his colleagues, in particular those based in Tullamore, were “professional and steadfast in their determination that the person responsible for Ashling Murphy’s murder would be brought to justice”.

“It was a monstrous crime that shocked the nation,” he said. “I also, most importantly, want to thank the community of Tullamore – a compassionate, kind, resilient and generous community.

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“They were of invaluable assistance to An Garda Síochána throughout this investigation, in particular providing us with access to CCTV which was instrumental in bringing the case against Mr Puska.”

Chief Supt Lonergan said the community had and continued to support Ms Murphy’s family.

“The courage, dignity, resilience and strength they have shown during this ordeal has been exemplary,” he said of the family, adding that the force would continue to support the family however possible.

Detectives believe the murder, which happened on the Grand Canal while Ms Murphy was out jogging in the afternoon, was a sexual attack that went wrong, though the motive will never be proven.

Gardaí strongly suspect that Puska set out to sexually attack a woman in or around Tullamore on January 12th, 2022. The Slovakian national, a long-term resident in the State, had followed a number of other women around the town on the day, as heard in evidence during the trial. It is suspected that he then randomly selected Ms Murphy as his victim, but she fought back and he stabbed her to death.

Puska had no previous convictions in the State before he murdered Ms Murphy and was never a suspect in any other crimes. He also had no previous convictions in Slovakia or any other country.

Gardaí carried out significant investigations to determine if he had committed other offences in the State that had not been detected. Detectives studied unsolved crimes, including sexual offences, and canvassed victims in an attempt to determine if any of them recognised Puska. The exercise threw up no results.

The father of five was carrying a knife on the day and stabbed Ms Murphy repeatedly in the neck. His DNA was found under Ms Murphy’s fingernails, which was regarded as evidence of the young woman fighting for her life. A postmortem showed no signs of sexual attack having taken place.

Puska incurred stab wounds to the abdomen around the time of the murder. Gardaí believe those injuries were self-inflicted and aimed at supporting his fabricated story that he was stabbed by the same man he claimed fatally attacked Ms Murphy.

In a victim impact statement read in court on Friday, Ms Murphy’s sister, Amy Murphy, said members of the public were “often quick to criticise the failings of An Garda Síochána but forget to thank them when great work has been done”.

“We commend the gardaí for exhaustively and comprehensively piecing together a robust and thorough investigation,” she said.

Ms Murphy said CCTV formed a significant part of the evidence in this case and that promises were made after her sister’s murder “by those in positions of power” that additional cameras would be “installed in our local public spaces in Tullamore including the Grand Canal Greenway”.

“This was to ensure women could safely go about their daily lives. These were empty promises that never came to fruition.”