There is a one-in-a-billion chance that DNA found on a bicycle left near the scene of Ashling Murphy's death belonged to anyone other than the man accused of her murder, the Central Criminal Court has been told.
A forensic scientist told the court that a profile he extracted from the handlebars of the bicycle matched DNA extracted from two samples taken from 33-year-old Jozef Puska from Mucklagh in Co Offaly.
Mr Puska denies the murder of Ms Murphy, who was 23, in January last year.
Earlier the court heard that Mr Puska asked a Slovakian interpreter to translate his confession to the murder to gardaí.
The interpreter described Mr Puska as being in low spirits and desperate, after the confession.
Forensic scientist John Hoade, who is recently retired, gave evidence of taking swabs from the handlebars of a bicycle found in a ditch on the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore near where Ms Murphy’s body was discovered on 12 January, 2022.
He was able to develop a DNA profile from the swabs.
He then compared them to profiles developed from two samples taken from Mr Puska – a blood sample taken while he was in St James’ Hospital and a DNA reference swab taken at Tullamore Garda Station after his arrest on 18 January.
All three profiles matched each other Mr Hoade said.
And he agreed his conclusion was that the chance of the DNA on the bicycle coming from someone other than Mr Puska was one-in-a-billion, or more.
The court also heard evidence from two experts in fingerprint analysis.
Dr Kim Connick said she was able to develop a fingerprint on the underside of the saddle of the same bicycle.
Sergeant Damien Carroll said he compared the fingerprint with prints taken from Mr Puska on his arrest.
He said he was in no doubt that the mark on the underside of the saddle of the bicycle was made by the ring finger of Jozef Puska’s right hand.
Interpreter says Puska asked for confession translation
Earlier, the court heard evidence from interpreter, Miroslav Sedlacek, who is originally from the Czech Republic and provides translation services in German, Czech and Slovak, he told the court.
On 14 January, 2022, he provided translation services by phone, twice to gardaí in St James’ Hospital in Dublin, who were speaking to Jozef Puska.
The first conversation was around lunchtime, he said, and dealt with the attack that Mr Puska alleged had happened in Blanchardstown.
He said Mr Puska was speaking freely – and quickly – he sometimes had to stop him to be able to translate.
He told the court the second conversation took place at around 6pm on that evening and lasted around 20 minutes.
He said the conversation began with gardaí telling Mr Puska about the search warrant they had and explaining that his personal belongings would have to be seized for an investigation into a murder in Tullamore.
He told the court that Mr Puska wanted to know how this was related to him and wanted to know if he was a suspect. Mr Sedlacek said gardaí told him he was a person of interest and explained what this meant.
Mr Sedlacek said he remembered very well what followed after this. He said it was at this point that Mr Puska asked him personally to translate his confession.
He said Mr Puska asked him to translate accurately and exactly what he was saying.
He said Mr Puska told him to tell the gardaí that he did it, that he killed her and that he did not do it intentionally.
Mr Sedlacek said this was still between him and Mr Puska before he had the chance to translate – it was quite spontaneous he said, everything came quickly.
He said Mr Puska said he did not want to do it, that he was very sorry that he did it and that it happened.
Mr Sedlacek said he translated to gardaí word for word and gardaí cautioned Mr Puska.
He said he translated the caution and Mr Puska said he understood.
He said Mr Puska wanted to stress that he did not do anything intentionally.
Mr Sedlacek said Mr Puska then started asking some questions.
He said Mr Puska was very concerned about the safety of his family.
His first concern was whether or not his family members’ names would go public.
Gardaí said his own name would go public. He also asked if there was any possibility the girl’s family would like to take any revenge on his own family for what he had done to her.
He said gardaí explained Ms Murphy’s family would certainly not take revenge on his family.
Mr Sedlacek said Mr Puska’s voice was very different from the first conversation he had with him.
He said he was quite emotional and his voice was trembling.
His sentences were quite disjointed. He said that he supposed this was as a result of the situation he was in.
He said the garda then told him that Mr Puska was not feeling well and they would have to end the call.
He said Mr Puska asked what would happen next and the garda explained that when he recovered, he would be brought to Tullamore Garda Station and would be interviewed there.
Mr Sedlacek said he would describe Mr Puska as being in very low spirits after the confession. "I would even say desperate," he told the court.
Under cross examination, Mr Sedlacek said when Mr Puska learned he was a person of interest, there was a pause.
He told the court that "there was some thinking going on" in Mr Puska’s mind.
He said he had no particular recollection of Mr Puska being reminded about the caution that he did not have to say anything, but he said "intuitively" he would say that he was reminded.
Asked by prosecution counsel, Anne Marie Lawlor, what he meant when he said at one point that gardaí interrogated Mr Puska, Mr Sedlacek said he meant that they had interviewed him.
He meant it in the "positive sense of the word", he said.
The court also heard from site nurse manager at St James’ Hospital, Roz Gillen, who told the court she had been approached by Detective Sergeant Pamela Nugent on the evening of 14 January.
The garda had a copy of a search warrant and Ms Gillen decided to move Mr Puska to a single room.
Under cross examination from Mr Bowman, Ms Gillen said there was never any request by gardaí to speak to a treating doctor.
She was not asked to refer to his medical notes and had no understanding of Mr Puska’s state of mind or medical circumstances.
She agreed she had no function in determining the fitness of someone to deal with gardaí
Asked if a request to deal with a treating doctor could have been accommodated, she said she did not know if a doctor would have been there, as it was a Friday evening.
