Jozef Puska loses appeal against backdating life sentence for murder of Ashling Murphy

By Ryan Dunne

Jozef Puska has lost an appeal against having his life sentence for the murder of Ashling Murphy backdated to the date he first went into custody instead of the date on which the sentence was imposed by the Central Criminal Court.

Defence Barrister for Puska (35), who is serving a life sentence for the murder of Ms Murphy (23), argued that there was no basis identified by Judge Tony Hunt for not backdating the sentence.

Despite Puska going into custody after his arrest in January 2022, trial judge Judge Hunt backdated the sentence only to when the verdict was returned in November 2023.

Counsel for Puska, John Berry, told the Court of Appeal on Wednesday that when cases come before the parole board, the specified times at which sentences are to be reviewed are triggered by the date the person goes into custody.

In rejecting the appeal, Judge Patrick McCarthy said that a court cannot take into account probation issues when fixing sentences, and the court must exclude any question of remission and any consideration of any issues of the parole board.

He said that a sentencing judge has discretion as to whether to backdate a sentence to the date a person goes into custody, and in this case Judge Hunt had articulated his reasons not to do so.

Puska, with a last address at Lynally Grove, Mucklagh, Co Offaly, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Murphy at Cappincur, Tullamore, on January 12th, 2022.

The jury found that Puska stabbed Ms Murphy 11 times in the neck and slashed her once with the edge of a blade before leaving her to die in the thick thorns and brambles by the side of the canal towpath between Tullamore town and Digby Bridge.

A monument now stands where she died.