A friend of the man accused of the murder of schoolteacher Ashling Murphy has said Jozef Puska called to his house on the night of the murder, looking like he had been in a fight.
Rostislav Pokuta, who is also Slovakian, told the Central Criminal Court he gave Mr Puska a lift home and asked him what had happened but he did not want to talk.
Mr Puska, 33, from Lynally Grove, Mucklagh in Co Offaly, has denied the murder of Ms Murphy on the afternoon of 12 January 2022.
Mr Pokuta said he had been in Ireland since 2006 and everyone calls him Peter. He was married with children, the court heard, and drove a bus and managed other bus drivers for a living.
He agreed he was a friend of the Puska family and knew Jozef Puska and his brothers. Two of Mr Puska’s brothers had called to his house on 11 January 2022 to pay him for bringing their children to and from school.
He agreed he had made two statements to gardaí on 21 and 24 January. He agreed with prosecuting counsel Anne-Marie Lawlor that he had left something out in his first statement to gardaí, which he discussed with them on the second occasion.
He said the information he had left out in his first statement was that Mr Puska had come to his door at around 9pm on the evening of 12 January 2022.
Mr Pokuta said Mr Puska looked very scared. He was wet and his face was scratched and bleeding. He looked like a totally different person. He told gardaí he looked like he had been in a fight and his face was almost blue.
Mr Pokuta said Mr Puska told him he "had a fight or something else in town".
He said he did not tell him who the fight was with and he told the jury Mr Puska did not really want to talk too much.
Mr Pokuta said Mr Puska asked him to drop him home and also asked him for a bottle of water.
He said Mr Puska did not look right but did not want to talk to him. He said he asked him why he did not call the guards, but he said he got no answer.
Mr Pokuta said when they got near Mr Puska’s house in Mucklagh, Mr Puska asked him to slow down in case there was someone outside his house.
He wanted him to drop him a little further down the road, but he said he dropped Mr Puska down to his house.
Asked why he had not told gardaí about this in his first statement, Mr Pokuta said he was worried for his family. In the aftermath of Ashling Murphy’s murder, he said there was a lot going on and a lot being said on social media.
He said he was afraid someone might come down to his house and do something.
Gardaí videoed his statement and offered him a solicitor. However Mr Pokuta said "why would I need a solicitor?"
Mr Pokuta identified his house on CCTV footage, which he said showed he and Mr Puska getting into his son's Volkswagen Golf car and driving towards Mucklagh.
Under cross-examination from defence counsel Michael Bowman, Mr Pokuta agreed that in his first statement he had claimed he had not seen any of the Puska brothers since Tuesday 11 January.
He told Mr Bowman that he was afraid, not for himself, but for his children. He said people were going seriously crazy. Asked if the atmosphere was "ugly around Tullamore", he said "more than that."
Mr Bowman asked Mr Pokuta if he could recollect if Mr Puska was holding his stomach or looked to be in pain when he arrived at his house. Mr Pokuta said "I think so, yeah".
Mr Bowman agreed with Mr Justice Tony Hunt that on instructions from his client he was suggesting that Mr Puska had an injury to his stomach when he arrived at Mr Pokuta's house on the evening of 12 January.
Fitbit data analysed
Detective Garda Ciaran Byrne told the court how the gardaí had analysed data from Ms Murphy's Fitbit watch.
It showed consistent data from nine minutes before 3pm on the day she was killed until just after 3.20pm, the court heard.
Det Gda Byrne explained how he had bought a device of the same make and model and walked the same route along the Grand Canal in Tullamore in order to provide reference data.
Ms Murphy started her walk along the canal at 14.51 the watch records. The first graph drawn up by Det Gda Byrne and shown to the jury shows that her pace and speed are consistent until just after 3.20pm.
The court heard she was out for a brisk walk and was walking at a pace of around nine or ten minutes a kilometre.
At around 3.23pm Garda Byrne said the pace starts decreasing until it stops at 16.04. He said this was the only graph that did not stop at 15.31, explaining that this is because of the way the Fitbit records speed and time.
The second graph tracks altitude and elevation. Until 15.21, he said the elevation shown was in keeping with the walk he had done when he was carrying out the test. At 15.21 the data shows a lower elevation he said.
Another graph shows the direction she was travelling - Ms Murphy walked eastwards along the canal for a distance of almost 3km and then turned around at Digby Bridge. At 15.21, five minutes after she turned around, her Fitbit stops moving in a consistent way.
The garda described it as moving in a frantic manner and agreed with Judge Hunt that it was "violently fluctuating".
The location on the canal corresponding to this change, is now marked by a memorial, the garda said.
The final graph prepared by Det Gda Byrne tracked Ms Murphy’s heart rate.
It is raised consistently until 15.21, consistent with someone exercising. At that time it rapidly decreases until 15.27. There was a slight increase from 15.27 to 15.31.
After that time the Fitbit was no longer picking up a heart rate, Det Gda Byrne told the court.
In cross-examination, Mr Bowman quizzed Garda Byrne about the accuracy of the graphs and suggested to him that the makers of the watch had said the readings from the watch were not intended to provide scientific data.
Garda evidence
The court then heard evidence from gardaí who attended Mr Puska's parents’ apartment in Crumlin after being told there had been a stabbing.
Garda Keith Brennan spoke to Mr Puska’s cousin who was at the apartment and helping to translate.
Garda Brennan said she told him Mr Puska was from the Tullamore area.
She said she had a conversation with Mr Puska’s wife the previous evening and that his wife had tried to go to the garda station and report Mr Puska missing.
Garda Brennan said Mr Puska appeared to be in pain and there were clear markings to his face.
Through his cousin he told gardaÍ that he had been stabbed in a fight in Blanchardstown the previous day.
Sergeant Paul McDonnell of Blanchardstown gardaí went to St James’s Hospital to speak to Mr Puska as they were investigating a double stabbing in Blanchardstown on 12 January.
He said he saw a large quantity of cuts on Mr Puska's hands and face.
Through a translator, Mr Puska told them he had come from Tullamore by car with a friend and that he had taken a taxi to Blanchardstown from Heuston Station.
Mr Puska said he did not know the address in Blanchardstown as he had shown it to the taxi driver on his phone, which he did not have since the attack.
He said he was going to visit a woman but could not tell gardaí her name.
Mr Puska told the gardaí that as soon as he got out of the taxi he was set upon by two men, whose faces he could not describe.
He believed injuries to his hands had occurred from being dragged along the ground.
Sergeant McDonnell said the consultant in charge of A&E in St James's, Dr Arthur Hennessy, would not divulge any information about Mr Puska’s condition or give them CCTV footage without a warrant.
He said his supervising officer contacted Tullamore garda station and he was asked by a sergeant in Tullamore to return to the hospital and make inquiries about the clothes worn by Mr Puska.
However, Mr Puska was in the operating theatre when they returned and the consultant said the gardaí would need a search warrant.
Sergeant McDonnell said he met two gardaí from Tullamore in the car park of the hospital and told them about his inquiries.
The trial will continue tomorrow morning.
