A witness has told a murder trial in Ireland how he spotted Ashling Murphy’s body after he was alerted to the scene by two ‘distressed’ female runners while he was cleaning a canal.

Primary school teacher Ms Murphy, 23, was killed while exercising along a canal walkway in Tullamore, Co Offaly, on January 12 last year.

Jozef Puska, 33, with an address in Mucklagh, Tullamore, has pleaded not guilty to her murder.

Charlie Kelly, from Waterways, said he was working with a colleague named Colin on the day Ms Murphy was killed – when they were approached by two women who were ‘very distressed-looking, agitated’.

Mr Kelly said the women pleaded for help and that there was ‘a woman being attacked by a man’ at a scene ‘about half way down’ the stretch of canal.

Ashling Murphy, 23, was killed while out jogging along a canal in Tullamore, Co Offaly, last January

Witness Charlie Kellie (pictured outside Dublin Central Criminal Court) said he saw through the hedge a woman’s body in a GAA tracksuit and that one of her legs was up against a tree stump

Mr Kelly said when he heard a bike mentioned, he initially thought two people had collided with each other.

Two cyclists who arrived on the scene turned back as they would get there faster than he and his colleague would on foot, Mr Kelly told the court.

Mr Kelly said he saw the bicycle at the scene first, and then he saw a pink hat. He said one of the cyclists was on the phone.

He said he saw through the hedge a woman’s body in a GAA tracksuit and that one of her legs was up against a tree stump.

‘I knew she was dead, there was very little colour in her hands… snow white,’ he said.

As an elderly woman with a small child approached and he told her ‘you’re better off to keep going’.

On the second day of evidence in the trial, Jenna Stack, a teacher from the Tullamore area, told the court she was going for a run with her friend Aoife along the canal at around 3.15pm on January 12 last year.

She told the court she had noticed a bike in the ditch and heard loud rustling and ‘a lot of noise’ coming from the dense hedge. 

A teacher from the Tullamore area today 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

People pay their respects with floral tributes at the Grand Canal in Tullamore where the primary school teacher was found dead

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‘It was like someone was struggling to be honest,’ Ms Stack told the court, adding that she initially thought someone had fallen off the bike.

Ms Stack told the court she then stepped in closer to the hedge and could see the back of a person wearing what looked like ‘a navy bomber padded jacket’ with an emblem.

She said she saw someone who appeared to be crouched over someone and appeared to be ‘holding her down’. 

‘His face, his teeth were grinding and he shouted ‘get away’,’ Ms Stack told the court.

‘The girl, she was lying on the ground and she was kicking so hard, like she was crying out for help.

‘She was moving whatever part of her body she could to get help,’ she said, adding that she had made no sound.

She said that she was afraid he was going to rape her, and told him she had her phone and would call the Gardai.

She told the court that the interaction lasted around 30 seconds.

Defending, Michael Bowman SC suggested to Ms Stack that the person seen crouching on the day of Ms Murphy’s death may have been ‘endeavouring to try and assist’.

Mr Bowman suggested to the court that Puska’s recollection was that there was an engagement with the witness Ms Stack, but he could not make out what was being said.

Mr Bowman also said Puska had not called out aggressively, but in pain from having his legs cut on the briars.

He told the court that Puska’s recollection is that Ms Murphy was moving, but said it was not in a ‘scissors motion’ that Ms Stack described.

Jozef Puska, 33, of Tullamore, Co Offaly, has pleaded not guilty to murder

Mr Bowman also suggested to the witness that Ms Murphy’s hands could have been on Puska’s forearms as he tried to stop the bleeding. 

Ms Murphy replied that she did not see that and said the person was kicking her legs.

‘That was her cry for help,’ she told the court.

Asked by Mr Bowman about her identification of a suspect from a line-up on the day after Ms Murphy’s death, who was not Puska, Ms Stack said they were ‘similar’.

Mr Bowman told the court that there were several aspects accepted by Puska, including that Ms Murphy was brought from the canal walkway to hospital until she was identified, and that he accepted the cause of death conclusion reached by pathologist Dr Sally Ann Collins.

Aoife Marron, a primary school teacher who also lives in the area, was jogging with Ms Stack on the same day. 

The scene in Tullamore, Co Offaly, last year after Ms Murphy was killed

She told the court they had hesitated when they saw a bike in the ditch, but stopped when they heard noises.

Ms Marron told the court she said to Ms Stack ‘that’s very strange’.

She said she saw a male with his head down and initially thought he had fallen off his bike into the ditch.

She told the court the man said ‘Ok, ok’ and then moved as though he was coming out of the ditch.

Ms Marron said Ms Stack shouted at the man before they sprinted from the scene.

‘Jenna said to me ‘there was a girl there’,’ Ms Marron told the court, and said Ms Stack had told her she might have been raped or was about to be raped.

‘I was terrified, I thought he was coming after me’, Ms Marron added, saying she looked behind to check if he was.

Detective Sergeant Paul Curran also gave evidence on Wednesday about aerial photographs he took on January 13.

The trial continues.