A man on trial for the murder of Ashling Murphy told a garda two days after she was killed that he had cut the neck of a girl he had never seen before, a jury at the Central Criminal Court has been told.
Det Garda Fergus Hogan said Jozef Puska volunteered information to him in English while Mr Puska was in St James’s Hospital on the evening of January 14th, 2022.
He said he had been asked to remain with Mr Puska in a room after two other gardaí had left.
Those gardaí, Det Sgt Brian Jennings and Sgt Pamela Nugent, told the jury earlier on Wednesday that Mr Puska had, via an interpreter, made admissions to murder when they were present in the room.
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Sgt Jennings and Sgt Nugent said Mr Puska made those admissions after he was told on the evening of January 14th that gardaí investigating the murder of Ms Murphy in Tullamore had a warrant to seize some of his property, including a mobile phone.
Wednesday was the seventh day of the trial of Mr Puska (33), of Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Co Offaly.
A native of Slovakia who has been living in Ireland for 12 years, Mr Puska has, through an interpreter, pleaded not guilty to the murder of Ms Murphy (23), at Cappincur, Tullamore, on January 12th, 2022.
The jury has heard Ms Murphy died as a result of 11 stab wounds to her neck.
It has also heard Mr Puska was admitted to St James’s Hospital in Dublin on the afternoon of January 13th, having alleged he was stabbed in the stomach in an incident in Blanchardstown on the night of January 12th, 2022, and remained in the hospital on January 14th after having surgery.
In direct evidence on Wednesday, Garda Hogan, attached to Birr Garda station, said that after his two colleagues left him in the room with Mr Puska on the evening of January 14th, Mr Puska had said to him: “I’m sorry, I am family, five kids, I see girl I never see before, I have knife I have use for chain.”
Garda Hogan said he told Mr Puska he did not have to say anything but Mr Puska went on to say: “Chain on bike.” Garda Hogan said he told Mr Puska the gardaí were going to contact a solicitor for him and Mr Puska said: “I tell her go, I won’t hurt you, when she pass I cut her neck, she panic, I panic.”
Mr Puska, the witness said, put his fingers on his lips, “as if he told the injured party to be quiet” and said: “She panic, I panic and then it happened. Will I go for 10 years?”
Garda Hogan said he told him he could not answer that.
The witness said Mr Puska also pointed to his stomach, which had wounds, and said: “I do this.”
In cross-examination by Michael Bowman, Garda Hogan said Mr Puska was upset and crying but did not say he was in physical discomfort and appeared in better shape than he had earlier that afternoon.
One of the reasons gardaí finished speaking with him earlier was because Mr Puska was in discomfort, he agreed. His notes of his conversation with Mr Puska were “100 per cent accurate”, he said.
In his evidence, Sgt Jennings, also attached to Birr station, said Mr Puska was upset and crying in St James’s Hospital on the evening of January 14th when, through an interpreter, he said, in the presence of the witness and Sgt Nugent: “I did it, I murdered. I am the murderer.”
He had cautioned Mr Puska and offered him a solicitor, he said.
He said Mr Puska had said, through the interpreter, the reason he is pleading guilty is because he did not want anything bad to happen to his family and he had said: “I feel guilty, I regret it.”
Under cross-examination by Mr Bowman, Sgt Jennings said that when he met Mr Puska on the evening of January 14th, he regarded him as “a person of interest”. He disagreed he was “interviewing” Mr Puska and said it would be “very unfair” to describe it as an “interrogation”.
Mr Puska gave no cause for concern in terms of his presentation throughout and it never occurred to him to record the exchanges with Mr Puska on his phone, he said.
The trial continues on Thursday.
