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

Barristers argued that there was no basis identified by judge for not backdating the sentence

Ashling Murphy: Teacher killed by side of canal towpath between Tullamore town and Digby Bridge.

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.

Barristers for Puska, aged 35, who is serving a life sentence for the murder of Ms Murphy, 23, argued that there was no basis identified by Mr Justice Tony Hunt for not backdating the sentence.

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

John Berry, for Puska, told the Court of Appeal on Thursday 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, Mr Justice 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 Mr Justice 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 12, 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.