Search

Listen Live

On Air Now

9:00pm - 1:00am

The Funky Disco

Village People

Y.m.c.a.

Witness Tells Court He Drove Jozef Puska Home On The Night Ashling Murphy Was Killed

Tuesday, 24 October 2023 13:00

The 33-year-old denies murdering Ashling Murphy in January 2022.

The Ashling Murphy murder trial has heard from a man who drove Jozef Puska home on the night the schoolteacher was killed. 

Slovakian native and bus driver Rostislav Pokuta – also known as Peter – told the jury that Jozef Puska called to his house in Tullamore at around 9pm on January 12th 2022 – the day Ashling Murphy died. 

He said Mr. Puska was ‘wet’ and ‘shaking’ and that his face was ‘scratched’, and said he gave Mr. Puska a lift to his home in Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Offaly.

Mr. Pokuta claimed Mr. Puska told him he was in a fight in town, but wouldn’t answer questions he had on it – at one stage saying ‘Leave it’.

Under cross examination defence barrister Michael Bowman said Mr. Pokuta gave two statements to Gardaí, which Mr. Pokuta agreed he hadn’t told the truth in the first one on January 21st. 

He said this was because ‘social media was going crazy’, and that he was worried for his family, before he gave a second statement on January 24th.

Mr. Puska denies her murder.

Data from Ashling Murphy's smartwatch has been shown to the jury in her murder trial.

Detective Garda Ciaran Byrne from the National Cyber Crime Unit told the jury one of the tasks was to try and ascertain if any devices captured Ashling Murphy’s last movements.

He said the FitBit Smartwatch was linked directly to an app on her phone.

Detective Garda Byrne said extracted data shows her heart rate started at 100beats per minute at 2:51pm – when her exercise started - before increasing for a period of time until 3:21pm.

Here, the court heard there was a rapid decrease until 3:27, before there were slight ups and downs.

At 3:31 – the watch no longer records a heartrate.

The trial continues this afternoon.

Share

More from Midlands News

Download Our App

Never miss a moment from Midlands 103