Ashling Murphy's family speak out as members of killer's family are jailed

Jozef Puska’s relatives withheld or destroyed evidence of the young teacher’s killing in Tullamore, Co. Offaly, in 2022. Puska was convicted in 2023 and is serving a life sentence.

Puska’s partner and the mother of his children, Lucia Istokova, 36, was given a 26-month sentence while his brothers Marek, 36, and Lubomir, 37, were sentenced to 30 months each. Lubomir’s wife Viera Gaziova, 40, was sentenced to 30 months and Marek’s wife Jozefina received 27 months.

Judge Caroline Biggs suspended the final six months of the women's sentences after considering reports regarding the roles of women in Roma society, which indicated they are "subordinate and subservient to men".

In his written statement, Ashling’s dad Ray told the court of his daughter’s love for music and how this passion grew after she was given a pink plastic fiddle by Santa for Christmas when she was only three.

Aisling Murphy.

 "Ashling always told me that she intended to give that toy fiddle she cherished so much as a child to her own children one day," he said.

"But that will never happen now. It will forever remain in her bedroom, frozen in time and unplayed by."

He added that his daughter "represents the best of everything Ireland is" before addressing the Puska family and saying they could have spared his family the "horror" of a trial if they had "simply done the right thing."

Ashling’s sister Amy also spoke to the court before sentencing, saying her family felt "gaslit" when barristers described the Puskas as holding family values.

"How dare they speak those words?" she said.

"Words they [the defendants] clearly don’t live by and that their actions completely contradict. Our parents worked incredibly hard to provide for us, to ensure we were educated and to instil in us a strong work ethic, integrity and moral responsibility.

Aisling Murphy.

"To sit there and hear those values twisted and used in defence of people who have demonstrated none of those qualities was infuriating. It felt deeply insulting to Ashling, to our parents and to everything decent families stand for."

Judge Caroline Biggs agreed with the Murphy family that the Puskas "closed ranks" and that while their actions did not prevent Puska’s prosecution, they did waste Garda resources.

* This article was originally published on Evoke.ie.