Additional reporting by Press Association
Jozef Puska has been found guilty of the murder of 23-year-old school teacher Ashling Murphy on day 18 of his trial at the Central Criminal Court.
At 2pm on Thursday afternoon, the jury minder returned to court 13 in the Criminal Courts of Justice building on Parkgate St in Dublin to tell the court registrar that the jury had reached a verdict.
Ms Murphy's family, who have attended every day of the trial, were summoned, along with barristers, media and Puska himself, who had been waiting in the cell area.
Once Mr Justice Tony Hunt had taken his seat, the jury of nine men and three women filed into the court with the foreman of the jury carrying the issue paper.
Taking the paper from the foreman, the registrar said:, "You say that the accused Jozef Puska is guilty of murder on count number one. Is that a verdict of you all?"
"Yes", the foreman replied.
The jury took about two hours to return their unanimous verdict, which will see Puska sentenced to life imprisonment at a later hearing.
Puska (33), with an address at Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Co Offaly, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Murphy at Cappincur, Tullamore, Co Offaly on January 12th, 2022.
He has been in custody since January 18th, 2022, when he was first arrested on suspicion of her murder.
Sigh of relief
Puska, wearing a grey jacket and white shirt with his long hair slicked back, put his head down when the verdict was delivered. There was an audible sigh of relief from Ms Murphy's family and their supporters.
Mr Justice Hunt told the jury that he agrees with their verdict and is "glad you didn't waste any more of your valuable time with Puska's nonsense".
The judge told the jury "we have evil in this room", adding: "There will be a day of reckoning for Puska."
He said the case was particularly difficult given "the kind of person that she obviously was".
He said primary school teachers loved children, and her GAA top showed her love of sport, and he added that to lose a child was unnatural.
Speaking of the Murphy family, Mr Justice Hunt said: "Their position is unenviable. How their child was taken away, to consider what happened here is enough to make you physically ill."
The jury were applauded as they exited the chamber as Ms Murphy’s mother held up a framed photograph of her daughter.
The judge said he had asked for silence but said the applause was "understandable".
Evidence
Puska was placed at the scene by the presence of his distinctive green and black bicycle a few feet from Ms Murphy's body.
He had been captured on CCTV cycling the same bicycle around Tullamore earlier that afternoon, and the prosecution alleged that the footage showed him following two women before heading towards the canal where he isolated Ms Murphy, who was walking alone.
Puska's DNA was found on the bike, as was his fingerprint, and his DNA was under Ms Murphy's fingernails.
The prosecution argued that the DNA under the nails showed that Ashling had scratched her attacker as she tried to save her own life.
When gardaí spoke to Puska the day after the murder, his face and hands were covered in scratches that were consistent with him crawling through the thorns and briars by the side of the towpath where he murdered Ms Murphy.
In his testimony to the trial, Puska claimed 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 Ms Murphy before running away.
In what prosecution counsel Anne-Marie Lawlor described as a "foul and contemptible fabrication", Puska claimed that he then tried to help Ashling by pulling her scarf up around the wound to her neck.
He claimed he realised he could not help her and crawled through the briars to an adjoining field where he fell unconscious for about four hours.
The jury rejected his version of events and found him guilty of Ms Murphy's murder.
No motive has been offered for the killing and lawyers in the case stressed that there was no connection between Puska and Ms Murphy.
