Courts

Five appear in court in connection with investigation into murder of Ashling Murphy

Three accused alleged to have failed to disclose information to gardaí, while two charged with impeding apprehension of chief suspect

Ashling Murphy was attacked and killed while jogging along the Grand Canal just outside Tullamore, Co Offaly in January 2022. Photograph: Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann

Wed Jun 14 2023 - 15:33

Three women and two men appeared before Tullamore District Court on Wednesday morning after being arrested in Dublin the day before in connection with the investigation into the alleged murder of Ashling Murphy, a 23-year-old primary schoolteacher who was killed in Tullamore, Co Offaly on January 12th, 2022.

Marek Puska (34), Lubomir Puska (35) and Lucia Istokova (34), whose addresses cannot be published by order of the court, are accused of failing to disclose information to gardaí on a date unknown between two dates last year.

Jozefina Grundzova (33) and Viera Gazoiva (38) are both accused of impeding the apprehension or prosecution of a person. Judge Michelle Finan also made an order prohibiting the publication of their addresses.

Det Gda Colin O’Leary told the court that when Lubomir Puska was arrested and charged he replied after caution: “I understand what you said and I thank you.”

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Marek Puska was arrested by Det Sgt Caroline Lyng and she said his reply after caution was: “It is out of my hands to say anything about that.”

Judge Finan was told the DPP had directed all five be tried by indictment and she remanded them on bail to appear in court again for service of books of evidence on July 26th.

A Slovakian language interpreter was in court to assist the accused. Bail was agreed on condition they all surrender their passports or travel documents but the court was told by Sgt James O’Sullivan that Jozefina Grundzova and Marek Puska said they had lost theirs.

Judge Finan ordered that the travel documents be surrendered by both those defendants within 72 hours and if that condition of the bail was breached, it would be open to the prosecution to apply for a revocation of bail.

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