The jury in the trial of Jozef Puska has seen CCTV footage of some of schoolteacher Ashling Murphy's last movements, as well as some of the clothes and jewellery she was wearing.
Jozef Puska, 33, from Mucklagh in Co Offaly denies murdering Ms Murphy beside the Grand Canal in Tullamore on the afternoon of 12 January 2022.
The jury has been told that gardaí went through more than 25,000 hours of CCTV to put together a compilation of what the prosecution says are relevant clips.
Garda David Harney and a colleague put the compilation together and played it for the jury this afternoon.
He told prosecuting counsel Anne Marie Lawlor he would have viewed the compilation 100 times. He agreed his assessment of what he could see was his opinion, but the jury were told it will be up to them to assess for themselves what the CCTV shows.
The first portion of CCTV showed the movements of Jozef Puska on a bicycle from just before 12.30pm on the afternoon on 12 January 2022 until just after 2pm on the same afternoon.
The footage shows Mr Puska on his bicycle travelling from Mucklagh towards Tullamore and his movements around Tullamore beginning at 12.25pm.
At around 1.38pm, a woman in a maroon jacket is seen walking along towards Cloncollig retail park just outside the town. The footage also shows Mr Puska cycling behind her in the same direction.
The woman goes into the car park at the retail centre. Mr Puska also cycles into the same car park shortly after her.The woman goes into Tesco. Mr Puska cycles down a service road at the side of Tesco, comes back out and then cycles out of the car park back the way he came.
At 1.53pm, Garda Harney told the court the footage shows Mr Puska stopping his bicycle and appearing to reach into both his pockets. The garda said Mr Puska places both hands to the front of his body for a number of seconds and appears to have something in his hand which he then returns to his pocket. He agreed that he had come to that conclusion because of the number of times he had viewed the footage.
Although lawyers for the defence put it to him that the footage was not of sufficient quality for Garda Harney to see what he was suggesting. Mr Puska then cycles on.
Just before 2pm, the footage shows a woman walking her dog. The court heard this woman’s name was Annmarie Kelly and the jury would hear evidence from her. Mr Puska is seen on his bicycle cycling behind this woman for some minutes.
He is then seen entering the Daingean road car park near the Grand Canal at 2.05pm.
Just over half an hour later on footage shown to the jurors, Ashling Murphy is seen leaving Durrow national school where she taught and getting into her Red Seat car.
She drives towards Tullamore and parks in the same car park. She is wearing a bobble hat, scarf, and runners with a white sole in the last images captured of her walking along the canal at 2.55pm.
Garda Harney told the jury there is no further CCTV footage of Mr Puska during the afternoon. And he agreed there were no CCTV cameras between the car park and the area where Ashling Murphy’s body was found.
However, the jury was shown CCTV footage from the same evening of a man the prosecution says is Jozef Puska.
A man in dark clothing emerges from near a bypass outside Tullamore at 8.55pm walking back towards town. Garda Harney said it was very strange for someone to appear from such a place as you would not generally see people walking on the bypass at nighttime.
The jury were shown footage of this man walking back into town and calling to a house. He then gets into a car and is driven towards the village of Mucklagh. The prosecution says this man is Jozef Puska.
The final piece of CCTV footage shows a car arriving at an apartment building in Crumlin in Dublin in the early hours of the following morning. Jozef Puska along with his father and mother walk into the building. At this stage, Garda Harney said, Mr Puska has facial hair and appears to be moving normally.
He is seen again around 12 hours later being taken out of the same apartment building by paramedics and then arriving at the emergency department of St James’ hospital on a stretcher. At this stage, Garda Harney agreed, Mr Puska does not have facial hair.
Earlier, a paramedic told the court that by the time the ambulance got to the scene where Ms Murphy’s body was found, nothing further could be done for her.
Advanced paramedic Paul McCabe said he and his colleague got a call at around 3.49pm on the afternoon of 12 January 2022 and arrived around seven minutes later.
When he got to the scene he saw two gardaí who were down an embankment trying to assist a patient. He said he did not know if the patient was male or female at the time. She was lying on her back in the undergrowth. Her left foot was elevated on a branch and her head was slightly turned to the left.
He said they had to try to get her up onto the pathway to perform any medical interventions required. He and his colleague created a chain with the gardaí to lift her up the embankment – her jacket and a runner came off as they did so.
Mr McCabe said the patient’s hair was matted over her face – totally covering it. He said he could see a substantial wound or number of wounds to the right side of her neck. He told the court it was not until he moved back her hair he could see the patient’s eyes were open. He said her mouth was also open and her tongue was slightly out.
Mr McCabe said he cut the woman’s top open to try to put on shock pads with the intention of using a defibrillator. However, when they put a monitor on her, they discovered she was in a "non-shockable rhythm".
He explained to the jury that this meant there were no signs of life, her heart had stopped and she could not be shocked.
He said Ashling looked dead – her pupils were fixed and dilated, there was no pulse, no effort to breathe, no signs of life. Her skin was pale and cold, he said, and there was no effort to make movement.
Mr McCabe said as the clinical lead at the scene, he consulted with his colleagues and they decided to do no more. Nothing else was going to make any difference, he said, and they covered Ms Murphy with a blanket.
Scenes of crime examiner Garda Ronan Lawlor told the court he arrived at the scene on the evening of 12 January. When he saw Ms Murphy’s body, he noticed numerous open wounds on the right side of her neck.
He also described a number of other items found at the scene. These items were shown to Garda Lawlor and to the jury. They included sunglasses, a light pink wooly hat with a furry bobble, and two blue Nike runners.
Under cross examination from Michael Bowman for Mr Puska, he said he had not seen pink gloves at the scene.
Garda Lawlor was also shown a number of other items recovered from Ms Murphy during the post-mortem examination. These included a scarf, a gold-coloured ring and a gold necklace with the word "Ashling" on it, which were shown to the jury in evidence bags.
Ms Murphy’s green and navy GAA top as well as a heavily blood-stained white t-shirt were taken out of evidence bags and shown to the jury.
The trial will resume on Monday afternoon.
