Members of the family of convicted murderer Jozef Puska have been told they should get their affairs in order before 22 October as there is a real risk they will be jailed for offences connected with the murder of Ashling Murphy almost four years ago.
Puska's brothers, Marek Puska and Lubomir Puska, as well as Jozef Puska’s wife, Lucia Istokova, are all due to be sentenced for withholding information from gardaí.
Puska’s sisters-in-law, Viera Gaziova and Jozefina Grundzova, were found guilty of assisting an offender by burning Jozef Puska’s clothes after the murder of Ms Murphy in January 2022.
Istokova pleaded guilty to withholding information just before the trial started.
Ashling Murphy was stabbed to death by Jozef Puska in a random attack on the afternoon of 12 January 2022 while she was walking along the Grand Canal near her home in Tullamore, Co Offaly.
Puska had followed two other women that day. He initially told his brothers he had tried to kill himself and had cut Ms Murphy accidentally when she tried to intervene.
At his trial, he claimed he had been attacked by an unknown man who then attacked and killed Ms Murphy.
Lawyers for Istokova told the court today that her life "imploded" when gardaí revealed that her husband was not the man she thought he was.
Senior counsel Colman FitzGerald said she had believed Puska was a loving partner and father and she had found herself in "manifestly extraordinary circumstances".
Istokova admitted not telling gardaí that Puska arrived home on the night of 12 January 2022 with visible injuries, that he admitted killing or seriously injuring a woman with a knife and that he owned a bicycle the gardaí were interested in.
She eventually told gardaí at the end of January that her husband had told her he did not mean "to kill that girl" and that she had not told them about the bicycle previously because she was "scared".
Ms Justice Caroline Biggs heard sentencing evidence from Detective Superintendent Patrick O'Callaghan and pleas in mitigation from lawyers for each of the five convicted people.
She will hear victim impact evidence before imposing sentences on 22 October.
Defence lawyers asked the court for leniency and said their clients would face difficulties in prison as they were not Irish.
The court heard members of the Puska family had come to Ireland in or around 2013.
The court also heard details of psychological reports furnished on behalf of each of the convicted people which mentioned that they were members of the Roma community.
In some of the reports, the psychologists mentioned issues for members of the community including "deeply rooted gender roles" meaning men were expected to provide financially while women took care of the home.
The psychologists suggested the culture and traditional practices of the Roma community could help people to understand how choices were shaped and decisions were made in relation to the offences the Puska family members had been convicted of.
Defence counsel Kathleen Leader, acting for Lubomir Puska, said the psychologists’ comments fitted with a lot of evidence heard in the case where loyalty was to family over the State.
She pointed out that her client had initially withheld information from gardaí but later told the truth and explained to them that he had never had to tell on his brother before.
Defence counsel Karl Finnegan, on behalf of Marek Puska, told the court there had been a lot of negative commentary online about the Puska family.
He said Ireland’s history of people going abroad to make a better life sometimes "got lost in commentary about immigration coming this way".
He said he was asking for Marek Puska’s decision to move to Ireland to be seen as something to his credit for the purpose of bettering his own life and the lives of his children.
The court heard the five convicted people had 14 children between them, all under the age of 16.
Ms Justice Caroline Biggs urged them to put their affairs in order as she said there was a very real risk of a custodial sentence for each of the accused.
She said she had heard that grandparents were ready to step in to mind the children in the case of Marek Puska and Jozefina Grundzova, and in the case of Lubomir Puska and Viera Gaziova.
Istokova had suggested that she would have to send her children to her parents in the Czech Republic if she was to be jailed.
Ms Justice Biggs said there seemed to be a lack of engagement with the realities that were facing her and advised her to put arrangements in place.
Ashling Murphy’s parents, Kathleen and Ray along with her sister, Amy and brother, Cathal, were all in court for today’s hearing.
They are expected to give victim impact evidence to the court on the next date.
