Mr Justice Hunt told the jury to approach the evidence unemotionally and be 'clear eyed'
The jury in the trial of Jozef Puska has begun its deliberations - after over three weeks of evidence in the case.
Before sending the jury out, Judge Hunt asked the jury to consider at the end of their deliberations what it is that they accept, and does what they ultimately accept “prove the crime of murder” or not. He further added that if the jury finds Mr Puska to be guilty of murder, then they must be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt.He also said that manslaughter was an option, but “no one is arguing for that in this case.”
He told the jury that they must “look very carefully” at Ms Stack’s evidence, and the fact that she picked a person out of an ID parade who was not the accused.He said it didn’t appear to him that there is any issue in the case that words of admission had been spoken. He said there is no “bright line rule” preventing gardai from carrying out investigative steps on hospital premises.
He said it was up to the jury now to determine whether they have any reasonable doubts about the garda interview and to decide “whether there's any reasonable doubt about the product of those efforts.” He said that in this case a translator had been provided at the time Mr Puska was spoken to in the hospital.
“You're the operatives of what is good and what is not good. What is doubtful and what is not doubtful,” he said. Mr Justice Hunt said the DNA swabbed from Ms Murphy’s nails contained a profile matching the accused man - and it was “north of 99 per cent” that it was his DNA. In this case Mr Justice Hunt said the inference the prosecution wish to draw is that the accused did not give an answer “because he didn’t have an answer that would stand up to scrutiny,” as being an “innocent explanation.”
But he said the jury must consider if Mr Puska did not say these things at the time because he had some fear for his family, or thought it would look worse for him than it actually was. He also said he was attacked in Tullamore and was worried that someone from his family might try to act on that.
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