Five in court in connection to Ashling Murphy murder

Five people have appeared in court charged with crimes in connection with the investigation into the murder of Ashling Murphy.

The 23-year-old primary school teacher was attacked while exercising along the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore, County Offaly, on 12 January 2022.

Two men and three women were arrested in Dublin on Tuesday and brought before Tullamore District Court on Wednesday.

Marek Puska and Lucia Istokova, both 34 and 35-year-old Lubomir Puska were charged with withholding information on dates between 12 January 2022 and 27 January 2022.

Jozefina Grundzova, 33, and Viera Gaziova, 38, were charged with impeding the arrest of an alleged offender on dates between 12 and 14 January 2022.

The court has imposed reporting restrictions on publishing address details for all of the accused.

All five, who are Slovakian, were provided with an interpreter for the court hearing, RTE reports.

Judge Michele Finan remanded all of the accused on bail with a number of conditions including surrendering all their passports, a promise to reside at the addresses provided to court and notifying gardaí (Irish police) of any change.

All five were granted legal aid and are due back before the court on 26 July when a book of evidence will be served.

The trial of the man accused of murdering Ms Murphy - Jozef Puska - has been moved to October to give the prosecution time to respond to an expert report submitted by his defence lawyers.

Ashling Murphy taught at Durrow National School and was also a talented musician, having played the fiddle and concertina.

Thousands attended vigils in Ms Murphy's memory across Ireland but also in London, New York and Dubai.

The nature, timing and setting of the killing - late afternoon in a quiet, rural area - resulted in calls for more to be done to tackle domestic, sexual and gender-based violence towards women.