A court heard how Jozef Puska told his wife Lucia Istokova he ‘didn’t mean to kill that girl’ but she was ‘scared’ to inform the authorities following the shocking murder
The man who murdered primary school teacher Ashling Murphy told his wife: “I didn’t mean to kill that girl.”
A court heard how Jozef Puska told his wife Lucia Istokova but she was “scared” to inform the authorities after his clothes were burned and he told her he needed to get out of their home following the murder. Ms Murphy, 23, was brutally stabbed to death by Puska while out for a run at the Grand Canal in Cappincur, Tullamore, Co Offaly in Ireland on January 12, 2022.
On Tuesday, Ms Istokova appeared at a sentencing hearing at Dublin’s Central Criminal Court alongside Puska’s brothers Lubomir, 38, and Marek, 36, as well as their wives, Viera Gaziova, 40, and Jozefina Grundzova, 32.
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The brothers ultimately conceded they heard Puska admit to harming a woman and how their wives were instructed to burn the clothes he was wearing during the course of the murder, Belfast Live reports. The court heard that Puska’s wife and brothers are facing a maximum penalty of five years in prison – while the brothers’ wives face a maximum of ten years’ imprisonment.
However Judge Caroline Biggs said she was waiting for victim impact statements from the family of Ms Murphy before passing sentence. Prosecuting Counsel Annemarie Lawlor SC told the sentencing hearing that Isokova was specifically charged for withholding information when she talked to investigators following her husband’s crime.
She failed to tell cops about her partner’s return home on the night of January 12 with “visible injuries,” that he admitted to killing or seriously injuring a female, that he owned a bike found at the scene and that he had travelled to Dublin that evening, the prosecution said. She described “caring for her children during this period”, following her husband killing Ashling, but maintained that nothing was admitted by her partner in relation to the killing of a female.
However is a subsequent police interview she said that her partner “told me he didn’t mean to kill that girl” and that he “needed to get out of here”. Ms Istokova told Gardaí that Puska told her she needed to mind the children and “he said something like ‘she is dead’.”
Asked during her interview why she hadn’t previously disclosed matters such as the bike, Ms Istokova told Gardaí she was scared. She also said she was scared to tell Gardaí about the burning of the clothes that were worn by Puska during the period he killed Ms Murphy. The court heard that Ms Istokova had pleaded guilty before the trial in which the other defendants had pleaded not guilty, and were ultimately convicted by a jury in June of this year.
Colman Fitzgerald SC, Defending for Jozef Puska’s wife – Ms Istokova – said: “She has stressed that she knows what she did was wrong, she accepts what she did was wrong and that is why she pleaded guilty.”
She felt an “immense weight off her shoulders” when she told the truth and understands the severity of her crime, he added. Her children were first and foremost in her mind, Counsel said, and she is now raising these children on her own.
The psychological report references potential difficulties that the children face, Counsel said. She has not explained to them why their father is absent, despite them going to visit him, he told the court. She is trying to “safeguard them” and that “may or may not be wise Judge,” Counsel said. She had stated that she had believed her husband had been a good father to her children.
Judge Biggs adjourned the matter to October 22 when victim impact statements from the Murphy family are expected to be read in court.