ATTACK RISK

Evil Jozef Puska held in isolated cell after Ashling Murphy murder as jail chiefs refuse to let him mix with prisoners

Puzka will serve all of his sentence in Ireland and will not be allowed to transfer back to Slovakia, another EU state, to do his jail time.

• Published: 14:55, 15 Nov 2023

EVIL killer Jozef Puska has been receiving medical assessments behind bars since he was found guilty of Ashling Murphy’s murder.

He is being held in an isolated cell at Cloverhill Prison and has been watched around the clock to make sure he doesn’t try to kill himself.

The 33-year-Slovakian is due to be sentenced at the Central Criminal Court on Friday.

He had previously tried to take his own life before he took the witness stand at his trial.

Prison sources confirmed he has been monitored since his conviction by a health care monitoring team in Cloverhill and included psychiatric staff.

A prison source said: “There is no way he could be allowed to mix with other prisoners because we believed his life would be in danger.

“Prisoners have their own rules and since Ashling’s horrific death was such a high profile case, we genuinely feared for his safety.

“He has been seen by the medical team over the past week and received a psychiatric assessment.

“This is normal procedure for prisoners who have been convicted of a very serious crime and are facing a long, long spell in jail.

“We have been determined to make sure he appears in court on Friday for his sentencing.”

Puska will be given the mandatory life sentence for killing the 23-year-old teacher and he is expected to be immediately moved to Mountjoy Prison to serve his sentence.

Senior Dept of Justice and Prison officials have made it clear he will serve all of his sentence in Ireland and under no circumstances will he be allowed to transfer back to Slovakia, another EU state, to do his jail time.

Ashling’s shocking murder has received huge coverage back in Puska’s native country.

Nobody in his home mountainous village of Lucivna which has a population of around 900, has agreed to speak about him.

He is regarded in all the media coverage as an embarrassment to Slovakia, which sees itself as a modern, up-and-coming European nation.

Ironically Slovakia had the death penalty for murder up until 1990.

Unlike Ireland, a life sentence in Slovakia now normally means life until the prisoner dies.

A life prisoner can only apply for parole after serving 25 years in jail and then it is up to the Prosecutor whether the killer is freed, which they are reluctant to do.