The defence has concluded its evidence in the trial of Jozef Puska who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 23-year-old Ashling Murphy in Tullamore, Co Offaly last year.
The jury will hear closing speeches from prosecution and defence lawyers tomorrow and are expected to begin deliberating on Wednesday.
The final defence witness was a recently retired NHS consultant who is an expert in emergency and intensive care medicine.
Dr Johann Grundlingh told the court that at the time Jozef Puska confessed to the murder of Ms Murphy to gardaí at St James' Hospital on the evening of 14 January 2022, the only medication to have any medical or psychological effect on him would be the pain relief medication, Oxycodone.
He said a daily total of 400mg of the drug can be tolerated and its side effects include anxiety, confusion, depression, insomnia, abnormal thinking and abnormal dreams.
The drug is known to produce mild cognitive impairment in healthy peoplel he said, adding that there were no records that Mr Puska was confused, disorientated or hallucinating.
He said he had concern about the reliability of Mr Puska's engagement with gardaí on the evening of 14 January.
This was due he said to the medication, the recent surgery, the unfamiliar environment he found himself in and the language barrier.
He said being in an unfamiliar environment could lead to a degree of distress and confusion and the language barrier could mean a patient would have difficulty communicating their needs.
He said he was of the opinion that Mr Puska would not have been in a fit state to be interviewed on that evening. He said there was no evidence his consciousness had been impaired but he had been receiving Oxycodone and although the dose was not excessive the effect was not known until it was administered.
It could have impaired his fitness to be interviewed he said but this was not assessed by a medical practitioner.
Under cross-examination, Dr Grundlingh said he accepted the prosecution witness, Professor Michael Ryan who gave evidence that the dosage of Oxycodone still in Mr Puska’s system would not have affected his confessions, was an unparalleled, internationally renowned expert in pharmacology and toxicology.
He agreed that he had compiled his report on the basis that Mr Puska had 20mg of Oxycodone at the time, but he accepted that the very most he could have had at the time of the confessions was just over 8mg.
He agreed with prosecuting counsel, Anne Marie Lawlor that his "question mark" over the reliability of Mr Puska’s confession was speculation about something that could be possible.
He agreed he was speculating about Mr Puska’s degree of familiarity with a hospital and that he had an interpreter available to him.
He agreed that Mr Puska was attended to by health care professionals fairly regularly who recorded him as alert and orientated. And he said there was nothing to suggest he was confused or disorientated.
He told defence counsel, Michael Bowman that if he was Mr Puska’s doctor he would have preferred to see him personally to actively exclude that he was not suffering from a subtle degree of confusion. And he agreed that if such an assessment had been undertaken, his evidence would not have been necessary.
Mr Justice Tony Hunt told the jurors they had now heard all the evidence in the case.
They will hear closing speeches from both sides tomorrow. He said those speeches would be completed tomorrow.
It is expected he will complete his charge to the jury on Wednesday and the jurors will then begin considering their verdict.
