The first Gardaí at the scene where primary school teacher Ashling Murphy's body was discovered gave evidence in front of the jury this morning. Garda Tom Dunne said that he and his colleague were amongst the first at the scene, and attempted CPR on Ashling's body for 15 minutes, but there were no signs of life.

The accused, 33-year-old Jozef Puska, denies murdering Ms Murphy on the banks of the Grand Canal at Tullamore, Co Offaly, on the afternoon of 12 January 2022.

Ashling Murphy vigil at the Leinster House, Dublin. Friday 14th of January 2022. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

Garda Dunne said he was on duty at Tullamore Garda station when he received a call from a man who clearly sounded distressed. The man was not "making a whole pile of sense", the garda told the court, and just kept saying there was a body in the ditch and mentioned Boland's Lock and Digby Bridge.

Dunne said that the man did not sound like he knew what had happened, but from the panic, it sounded like something serious had occurred.

Alongside his colleague, Garda Shane Hunter, Dunne drove to the scene, and the location of the body was pointed out to them upon arrival.

Garda Dunne said he could see straight away that there was a body in the ditch - around "5 to 6 feet" in from the path and the same distance down. He agreed with prosecuting counsel Anne-Marie Lawlor that there was quite a degree of undergrowth and brambles in the ditch.

The body appeared to be a woman he said - wearing a navy jacket up to her neck, navy leggings, blue runners and there was a pink woolly hat beside her body.

Dunne said he put on disposable gloves, went down into the ditch, unzipped the woman’s jacket and began doing chest compressions. Garda Hunter was behind him, he said, and they alternated doing the compressions for about ten minutes or more.

He said the woman's hair was matted, covered in blood and caught in briars. Garda Hunter told the court he could see around ten lacerations on her neck.

When paramedics arrived to the scene, the body was lifted out of the ditch, where they continued resuscitation efforts using a defibrillator. Attempts ceased after there were no signs of life for some time.

Garda Dunne said when the woman was laid on the pathway, he could see holes or puncture wounds under her neck. He said he could make out four or five such wounds, with some effort as there was so much blood it was impossible to see.

The woman had a phone in her jacket pocket as well as keys to a Seat car. He told the court there was a necklace around her neck with 'Ashling' on it.

He said he also saw a bicycle at the scene close to where the body was, which the prosecution has said belongs to Puska.

Earlier, the trial heard from Emma Doyle, a key witness whose parents lived in the vicinity of the canal.

She told the court that she had gone for a walk along the canal around 3pm on that afternoon and had encountered a man on a bicycle. She said she saw a woman walking and a man on a bicycle very close to her. She said at first she thought they were together as they were so close, but the cyclist then passed the woman.

Doyle also stated in her account that the bicycle had neon green on its front, and that the man was wearing a black tracksuit top and dark bottoms. He had a tight crew cut, dark hair, dark stubble, sallow skin and what she described as "striking", "unusual" eyes — Doyle said she did not think the man was Irish.

They greeted each other while passing and Doyle walked ahead.

A short time after, she was in the sitting room of her parent's house when she heard voices outside. She saw two women - Aoife Marron and Jenna Stack - who gave evidence to the trial yesterday. They appeared shocked and upset about something, she said, and told her a girl had been attacked down the canal.

She told the court that Aoife asked Jenna "how did you see that?" and Jenna replied that she saw the bicycle and saw the legs kicking up and down.

Doyle told the court that Stack had attempted to intervene, shouting at the man to stop and that she would call the guards, and that the assailant had turned around and told her to "F off."