An “evil” man has been found guilty of murdering a schoolteacher while she was going for a run along a canal.
Jozef Puska, 33, was convicted on Thursday at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin of killing Ashling Murphy in Tullamore, Co Offaly, Ireland, in January last year.
Puska, of Lynally Grove in Mucklagh, Tullamore, had pleaded not guilty to the 23 year-old’s murder but a jury of nine men and three women reached their unanimous verdict after beginning deliberations on Wednesday.
Judge Mr Justice Tony Hunt told the jury “we have evil in this room” after Jozef Puska was found guilty of murdering Ashling Murphy.
Justice Hunt said: “There will be a day of reckoning for Puska.”
Jozef Puska in the dock at the Central Criminal Court in Dublin
(PA)
At the time of her murder, had been out for a run on a sunny January afternoon. She had covered 3.2 km when she was randomly attacked by Jozef Puska, a man she had no past connection with.
Her fitness tracking app was still running when she was found fatally injured amid thick undergrowth down in a ditch adjacent to the canal path and her smartwatch Fitbit data recorded a sudden erratic movement at 3.21pm, the moment Puska struck.
The circumstances of her murder, the indiscriminate stabbing of a young woman who was simply out for some exercise, resonated across the globe.
The jury were applauded as they exited the chamber as Ms Murphy’s mother held up a framed photograph of her daughter.
Justice Hunt thanked the jury for their service and exempted them from further duty for 20 years, adding that the prompt verdict reflected that it was a straightforward case and was satisfied the verdict was correct.
The judge said the case dealing with Ms Murphy’s killing was particularly difficult given “the kind of person that she obviously was”.
(PA Wire)
He told the court that to lose a child was unnatural. Speaking of the Murphy family, he said: “Their position is unenviable. How their child was taken away, to consider what happened here is enough to make you physically ill.”
Women’s Aid has welcomed the conviction of Josef Puska for the murder of Ashling Murphy.
In a statement, the charity said: “When Puska senselessly took Ashling Murphy’s life at 4.30pm in broad daylight while she was out on a run, it sent a shockwave through communities in Ireland.
“That this could happen tapped into a visceral feeling that so many girls and women are socialised to feel – that the risk of male violence is everywhere. That nowhere is safe.”
More follows on this breaking news story….