Ashling Murphy death: Killer Jozef Puska sentenced to life in prison for murder of Irish schoolteacher

A man has been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Irish schoolteacher Ashling Murphy last year. A jury of nine men and three women found Jozef Puska, 33, from Tullamore guilty of murdering the 23-year-old after a trial in Dublin last week.

Ashling was killed while she was out exercising along a canal in Tullamore, County Offaly, in January last year. She was wearing a Fitbit which showed her exercise started at 2.51pm. but it tracked "erratic, violent movements" 30 minutes later. At 3.31pm, the smartwatch was no longer recording any heartbeat.

At Dublin’s Central Criminal Court, Mr Justice Tony Hunt, said there was only one sentence available, and it was “deserved”. He added that this is a mandatory life sentence for murder. He said Puska’s evidence had been “indescribable” and the “one thing we don’t know about this case is the why”.

Judge Hunt had last week told the jury “we have evil in this room” after Puska was found guilty, adding: “There will be a day of reckoning for Puska.” He told the court that losing a child was unnatural. Speaking of the Murphy family, he said: “Their position is unenviable. How their child was taken away, to consider what happened here is enough to make you physically ill.”