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Jozef Puska granted legal aid to appeal conviction for murdering school teacher Ashling Murphy

Puska will be entitled to the same legal representation he had for his trial at the Central Criminal Court

Today at 13:49

Jozef Puska has been granted legal aid to appeal his conviction for murdering school teacher Ashling Murphy.

His case was one of 20 applications for legal aid before the Court of Appeal this morning.

Mr Justice George Birmingham granted legal aid in all cases. Puska will be entitled to the same legal representation he had for his trial at the Central Criminal Court – a solicitor, senior counsel and two junior counsel.

During his trial, the jury heard Puska told detectives that he stopped working in 2017 after slipping a disk in his back.

Prior to a jury being sworn to hear Puska’s trial last year his lawyers made a number of objections to the evidence the prosecution intended to call. The defence argued that the jury should not hear Puska’s confession to gardai two days after the stabbing.

They said that Puska was suffering the effects of abdominal surgery and under the influence of the painkiller oxycodone and that his confession was therefore involuntary.