Ashling Murphy’s mobile phone fitness app was still running when police arrived to try to save her life, the court heard at the primary school teacher’s murder trial.
Gardai who arrived on the scene of the attack on schoolteacher Ashling Murphy have told a court of their intensive efforts to save her life.
Ms Murphy, 23, was assaulted and killed while out running along a canal path in Tullamore, Co Offaly in January 2022.
Jozef Puska, 33, of Lynally Grove in Mucklagh, Tullamore, has pleaded not guilty to the teacher’s murder.
On the third day of the trial at the Criminal Courts of Justice in Dublin, two gardai who were the first emergency services personnel on the scene on the afternoon of January 12 gave evidence.
Ashling Murphy, 23, was killed while out jogging along a canal in Tullamore, Co Offaly, last January
Jozef Puska, 33, of Tullamore, Co Offaly, has pleaded not guilty to murder
Garda Tom Dunne and Garda Shane Hunter performed CPR on Ms Murphy while they awaited an ambulance crew.
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Ms Murphy was found around lying face up in thick undergrowth in a ditch around six feet from the canal path.
A green bike was found close by.
Two cyclists had discovered her and were waiting beside the ditch as the gardai arrived in a patrol car.
Garda Dunne has received the call reporting a serious assault at Tullamore Garda station around 10 minutes earlier.
He had alerted colleagues and then he and Garda Hunter drove immediately to the scene.
Both guards described observing Ms Murphy lying on her back in the ditch.
She was covered in a lot of blood and her hair was badly matted, they told the court.
Garda Dunne went down into the ditch and felt for a pulse.
He said he did not believe there was a pulse but, if there was, it was a very faint one.
Garda Dunne said he then commenced CPR on Ms Murphy, with Garda Hunter taking over, before he resumed again.
‘We just alternated between the two of us, I would say for 10 minutes or more,’ Mr Dunne told the court.
Garda Hunter said they alternated to ‘ensure neither of us got fatigued’.
Both gardai told the court of the laceration injuries they observed around Ms Murphy’s neck.
The opening day of the trial heard the 23-year-old was stabbed 11 times in the neck.
On Thursday, Slovakian national Puska, wearing a grey jacket, listened on from the dock with the assistance of an interpreter.
Members of Ms Murphy’s family were in the public gallery of the court.
People pay their respects with floral tributes on January 19, 2022 at the Grand Canal in Tullamore where the primary school teacher was found dead
The scene in Tullamore, Co Offaly, last year after Ms Murphy was killed
A teacher from the Tullamore area yesterday told the court she saw a man holding down a woman who was kicking and crying out for help on the day Ms Murphy (pictured) was killed
The jury heard the teacher was wearing a navy running jacket and bottoms and a top of her local GAA club Kilcormac Killoughey when she was found.
She also had a necklace with her name ‘Ashling’ on it.
Garda Hunter told the court that Ms Murphy’s phone had a fitness app still running when he found it in her clothing.
He said when he looked at the screen at 4.15pm, the app showed an exercise session that was at one hour, 22 minutes and 20 seconds long, with 3.2 kilometres having been covered.
The court also heard from Detective Sergeant David Scahill who arrived at the scene minutes after Garda Dunne and Garda Hunter.
He described the actions of his colleagues as they performed CPR.
‘They were doing it alternately, they were doing the best they could do,’ he said.
He later added: ‘We’re not doctors, we do our best at the scene.
‘We were doing everything we could to help Ashling.’
The court heard that when ambulance personnel arrived at the scene, Mr Murphy was lifted from the ditch onto the canal path to allow the life-saving efforts to continue.
The attempts proved in vain, and Ms Murphy was declared dead at the scene.
The trial continues.
