Grieving Murphys condemn slander of witnesses to attack

THE family of Ashling Murphy ‘in no way blame’ two eyewitnesses for fleeing the scene when they came across her murderer killing the schoolteacher.

It comes as the Irish Mail on Sunday learned Jenna Stack and Aoife Marron – whose evidence proved crucial during the murder trial of Ashling’s convicted killer Jozef Puska – were subjected to a hateful campaign on social media in recent weeks.

Ms Stack and Ms Marron were out for a run on the afternoon of January 12 when they came across Puska killing the 23-yearold in a ditch off the Grand

Canal in Tullamore, Co. Offaly.

After shouting at Puska and telling him she was going to call gardaí, Ms Stack fled with her friend to get help as neither had a phone with them at the time.

They ran as fast as they could for about half a kilometre before meeting two men with whom they raised the alarm.

They also flagged down two cyclists, one of whom made the first call to Tullamore Garda station about the murder.

That call was received in the Garda station at 15.35pm, just four minutes after Ashling’s heart stopped beating, according to data from her Fitbit fitness tracker.

A Garda source said the Murphy family understood the two women ‘did their best for Ashling’.

The source told the MoS: ‘Ashling’s family in no way blame them. If they don’t blame them, why are people on social media blaming them? It’s crazy.’

Another source close to the family said they are ‘extremely grateful’ to all the prosecution witnesses in the trial, including Ms Stack and Ms Marron.

They added: ‘Everyone did their very best; it wasn’t easy to give evidence, it was very emotional, but we got the right result.’

Local people who spoke to the MoS this weekend also expressed their support for the two eyewitnesses.

One person who knows the women said: ‘They were just out for a run and then they come across a lad with a knife, so what do you do?

‘He could have pushed them into the canal or knifed them too. It might have been different if it was a man or men who came along,’ they said.

The local, who did not wish to be identified, said their harrowing experience and stress of the court case, ‘has hit those women hard’.

They added: ‘No one is used to this. They’re out for a run and then they find themselves at the centre of the biggest murder trial in the country.’

Another local woman, Annemarie Kelly, gave evidence at the trial that Puska followed her on his bike as she walked along a street in Tullamore on the day of Ashling’s murder.

Ms Kelly, also a primary school teacher, told the court how

Puska cycled ‘very close behind me’ and ‘was staring directly at me’. She added that, as he passed, Puska looked very closely at me’, as if he was in slow motion.

Ms Kelly did not wish to comment on her experience or the outcome of the trial when contacted by the MoS this weekend.

However, a relative said the family was ‘relieved’ at the outcome and that Ms Kelly had been ‘brave’ to give gardaí the help they needed to convict Puska.

A local source said: ‘She [Ms Kelly] and the other women who gave evidence at the trial were very brave to go to court and give evidence,’ they said.

‘She is one of a lot of people in the town who were thinking: “It could have been me.”’