Relatives of Ashling Murphy's killer guilty of impeding murder probe
Jozef Puska's wife, Lucia Istokova, had pleaded guilty just before the trial started to withholding information about the murder.This included witnessing Jozef Puska arriving home with visible injuries, admitting killing or seriously injuring a woman with a knife, and that he owned a bicycle the gardaí were interested in.Lucia Istokova's plea can only be reported now as legal restrictions were in place while the trial of Jozef Puska's brothers and their wives was taking place.During evidence the court was told that after murdering Ms Murphy, Puska went to the house he shared in Tullamore with his wife and their children as well as his two brothers and their families.Prosecution lawyers argued that the brothers knew what Puska had done, and their wives knew why they were burning his clothes.
Defence lawyers for the two brothers said that they were worried about incriminating themselves.All five were remanded on continuing bail and the case will be mentioned on 7 July when a sentence date will be fixed.Ms Murphy's mother and father, Kathleen and Ray, her sister Amy and brother Cathal were in court on Tuesday to hear the verdicts.
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