A court heard how Jozef Puska told his wife Lucia Istokova he ‘didn’t intend to kill that girl’ but she was ‘afraid’ to inform authorities after the shocking murder
The man who killed elementary school teacher Ashling Murphy told his wife, “I didn’t want to kill that girl.”
A court heard how Jozef Puska told his wife Lucia Istokova but she was “afraid” to inform authorities after his clothes were burned and he told her he had to move out of their home after the murder. Ms Murphy, 23, was brutally stabbed to death by Puska while he was in Ireland in the Grand Canal in Cappincur, Tullamore, Co Offaly, Ireland on January 12, 2022.
On Tuesday, Ms Istokova appeared at a 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 eventually admitted that they heard Puska admit to harming a woman and how their wives were instructed to burn the clothes he wore during the murder, Belfast live reports. The court heard that Puska’s wife and brothers face a maximum penalty of five years in prison – while the brothers’ wives face a maximum of 10 years in prison.
However, Judge Caroline Biggs said she was waiting for victim impact statements from Ms Murphy’s family before sentencing him. Prosecutor Annemarie Lawlor SC told the sentencing hearing that Isokova was specifically charged with withholding information when she spoke to investigators after her husband’s crime.
She did not tell police about her partner’s return home on the night of January 12 with “visible injuries”, that he admitted killing or seriously injuring a woman, that he had a bicycle at the scene and that he had traveled to Dublin that evening, the prosecution said. She described “caring for her children during this time”, after her husband killed Ashling, but claimed nothing was allowed by her partner in relation to killing a woman.
However, in a subsequent police interview she said her partner “told me he wasn’t going to kill that girl” and that he “had to get out of here”. Ms Istokova told gardaí that Puska told her to take the children and “he said something like ‘she’s dead’.”
Asked during her interview why she had not previously disclosed matters such as the bicycle, Ms Istokova told gardaí she was scared. She also said she was afraid to tell gardaí about the burning of the clothes 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 pleaded not guilty and were ultimately convicted by a jury in June this year.
Colman Fitzgerald SC, defending for Jozef Puska’s wife – Mrs Istokova – said: “She has emphasized that she knows what she did was wrong, she accepts what she did was wrong and that is why she pleaded guilty.”
She felt a “huge weight lifted from her shoulders” in telling the truth and understanding the severity of her crime, he added. Her children were foremost in her thoughts, the counselor said, and she is now raising these children alone.
The psychological report points to potential difficulties the children face, the counselor 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 “protect them” and that “may or may not be a wise judge,” the defense attorney said. She had stated that she had believed her husband had been a good father to her children.
Judge Biggs adjourned the case until October 22 when the Murphy family’s victim impact statements are expected to be read in court.
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