Court of Appeal rejects bid to backdate Jozef Puska's life sentence for Ashling Murphy murder

The Court of Appeal has refused Jozef Puska's request to have his life sentence for the murder of Ashling Murphy counted from the day he was first taken into custody. The ruling leaves in place the decision of the trial judge, Mr Justice Tony Hunt, who started the sentence in November 2023, when he passed it at the Central Criminal Court.

Puska's legal team wanted the start date moved back to January 2022, when he was first arrested. He is 35. His counsel, John Berry SC, told the appeal court that no basis had been identified for declining to backdate the sentence to that point.

The practical stake, Mr Berry explained, is the Parole Board. The dates on which a life sentence comes up for review are triggered by the date a person enters custody, so the starting point of the sentence changes when Puska would be able to go before the board.

Mr Justice Patrick McCarthy rejected the argument. He said a court fixing a sentence cannot take probation issues into account. A sentencing judge, he said, has discretion over whether to backdate a sentence to the date a person went into custody, and in this case Mr Justice Hunt chose not to.

The case behind the appeal is the killing of Ashling Murphy, a 23-year-old teacher, who was stabbed to death while jogging on the canal near Tullamore, Co Offaly, on January 12, 2022. Puska pleaded not guilty to murder. The jury unanimously found him guilty.

The jury found that he stabbed her 11 times in the neck and slashed her once with the edge of a blade. She was left to die in thick thorns and brambles beside the canal towpath, between Tullamore town and Digby Bridge.

The evidence placed him at the scene. His distinctive green and black bicycle was found a few feet from her body. CCTV had captured him cycling the same bike around Tullamore earlier that afternoon, following two women before he headed toward the canal. His DNA and a fingerprint were on the bike, and his DNA was also under Ashling's fingernails. The prosecution argued that this showed she had scratched her attacker while fighting for her life.

When gardai spoke to Puska the day after the killing, his face and hands were covered in scratches. They were consistent with crawling through the thorns and briars beside the towpath where Ashling was murdered.

With the appeal dismissed, the November 2023 start date stands, and it continues to govern when Puska's sentence can first be reviewed by the Parole Board.