Jozef Puska's family members jailed for withholding information and burning murderer's clothes

Five members of Jozef Puska's family, who withheld or destroyed evidence of the murder of Ashling Murphy, have been jailed by a judge at the Central Criminal Court.

Puska's brothers Marek (36) and Lubomir (37) have been sentenced to 30 months each in prison. Lubomir's wife Viera Gaziova (40) was sentenced to 24 months and Marek's wife Jozefina to 21 months.

READ NEXT: 'Do not eat!' - Warning issued as plastic pieces found in food item sold across Irish supermarkets

Jozef Puska's partner and the mother of his children, Lucia Istokova (36) will serve a 20-month sentence.

Before sentencing, Ashling Murphy's sister Amy Murphy told the court of the family's anger at the "injustice of it all" and the "staggering" public cost to pay for legal teams that could have been directed to "vital and underfunded services across Ireland".

She said her family felt "gaslit" when barristers for each of the accused described their clients as holding family values and wanting to educate their children and create a better life for them.

"How dare they speak those words?" she said. "Words they clearly don't live by and that their actions completely contradict."

"Our parents worked incredibly hard to provide for us, to ensure we were educated and to instil in us a strong work ethic, integrity and moral responsibility. To sit there and hear those values twisted and used in defence of people who have demonstrated none of those qualities was infuriating. It felt deeply insulting to Ashling, to our parents and to everything decent families stand for."

Ms Murphy said the defendants made "deliberate choices" to withhold information or destroy evidence. She added: "They each chose silent complicity, proving themselves to be unreliable and untrustworthy when truth and courage were most needed."

Jozef Puska (35) murdered Ms Murphy (23) on January 12, 2022 by repeatedly stabbing her in the neck after attacking her while she exercised along the canal towpath outside Tullamore, Co Offaly. He was convicted in 2023 of her murder and is serving a life sentence. He will first be eligible to apply for parole after he has spent 12 years in custody.

Ms Murphy said the thought of returning to court filled her with dread, but she felt it was essential that her sister be represented and that "our family's voice is finally heard before any decision is made regarding the future of these defendants".

She said the family's perspective has rarely been heard throughout the court process and they have had few opportunities to convey the "true depth of our pain and loss".

READ NEXT: Thousands across Ireland could be eligible for a social welfare boost of over €400

Ashling and Amy's father, Ray Murphy, wrote a statement which was read by Garda Alan Burke. Mr Murphy told the court that when Ashling was three years old, Santa brought her a pink plastic fiddle. It played nursery rhymes and from this, her love of the fiddle grew, he said.

He added: "Ashling always told me that she intended to give that toy fiddle she cherished so much as a child to her own children one day, so they too could play with it and find a love of music. But that will never happen now. It will forever remain in her bedroom, frozen in time and unplayed by children Ashling can never have."

Mr Murphy said the defendants could have spared the family the 'horror' of a trial if they had "simply done the right thing and for once thought of others instead of themselves".

He added: We may even have even been spared the trauma of a murder trial, of having to endure the detailed horrors of what was inflicted upon our Ashling if any one of these five people had come forward with what they knew in January 2022. Instead, they closed ranks and decided to protect the animal they call their husband and brother."

Ashling, he said, "represents the best of everything Ireland is... beauty, kindness, compassion, and talent, love and innocence. This will forever be her legacy. Ireland is a better place because she was here."

Mr Murphy asked the Puska family to consider their legacy. He said they take but give nothing and when they knew, "without question" that Jozef Puska had murdered Ashling "in the most horrific way imaginable, they did everything possible to conceal what they knew and to destroy vital evidence.

Had they succeeded, he added: "My family would be left without justice and closure for the rest of our lives while your husband and brother would be left free to roam the streets of Ireland to possibly do this all over again to another innocent family."

READ NEXT: 'How blessed' - RTÉ star announces birth of her first child as she shares cute and classic name

Imposing the jail terms today, Ms Justice Caroline Biggs said she is required under the Constitution to impose a proportionate sentence that takes into account the harm done, the culpability of the defendants but also mitigating factors in their favour.

She noted that the offending was not at the highest category, given that Jozef Puska was identified as a suspect, prosecuted and convicted. However, she further noted that each accused had acted with the knowledge that Puska had killed Ashling Murphy or committed a similar type offence.

The family "closed ranks", she said.

On June 17 this year, a jury accepted the prosecution’s case that Lubomir Jnr and Marek misled gardai by failing to disclose vital information when they gave witness statements, while their wives - Gaziova and Grundzova - burned Jozef's clothes to impede his arrest or prosecution. All four had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Jozef Puska's partner and mother of his children, Lucia Istokova (36), pleaded guilty to withholding information in May this year before the commencement of the trial.