Current affairs programme The View included critique of Ryan Casey’s victim impact statement
Ryan Casey, the boyfriend of Ms Murphy, issued High Court defamation proceedings against the BBC on August 1, over criticism of his victim impact statement at the murder trial of Jozef Puska last November.
Mr Casey is represented by a small Tullamore firm, Brian P Adams & Company, in the legal action. Earlier this month Dentons, which opened its Irish office in 2020, came on record for the BBC in the case.
Since it established a base in Ireland, Dentons has recruited a number of leading solicitors from Irish firms, including Karyn Harty, an expert in defamation law.
In their first comments on the case, Marianne Deely, a partner in Brian P Adams & Company, issued a statement on behalf of Mr Casey.
Jozef Puska
“I can confirm that we are acting on behalf of Ryan Casey in relation to High Court defamation proceedings which have been commenced against the BBC in relation to an episode of The View television programme which aired on BBC 1 on November 30, 2023. We will not be making any further comment in relation to these ongoing proceedings at this time.
Puska, who pleaded not guilty to the murder, was sentenced to life in prison for stabbing Ms Murphy 11 times on January 12, 2022, when she was out for a run along the Grand Canal outside Tullamore.
Originally from Slovakia, he had lived in Offaly since 2015 with his wife and five children.
Before sentencing, Mr Casey made an emotional victim-impact statement to the court.
He described Puska as the “epitome of pure evil” and said the pain of losing Ms Murphy was “indescribable”.
Aspects of Mr Casey’s victim-impact statement were criticised on the BBC Northern Ireland programme last November
Mr Casey said: “It just sickens me to the core that someone can come to this country, be fully supported in terms of social housing, social welfare, and free medical care for over 10 years — over 10 years — never hold down a legitimate job and never once contribute to society in any way shape or form [and] can commit such a horrendous, evil act of incomprehensible violence on such a beautiful, loving and talented person who in fact, worked for the State, educating the next generation and represented everything that is good about Irish society.
“I feel like this country is no longer the country that Ashling and I grew up in and has officially lost its innocence when a crime of this magnitude can be perpetrated in broad daylight. This country needs to wake up; this time things have got to change.”
These aspects of Mr Casey’s victim-impact statement were criticised on the BBC Northern Ireland programme last November. Host Mark Carruthers interviewed Irish Times journalist Kitty Holland who said elements of the media were right not to report Mr Casey’s full statement as they were “not helpful”.
Ms Holland said she understood Mr Casey was heartbroken but said there were “elements that were not good” in his comments. She said the far right had “latched onto” them but were ignoring all the cases of violence against women by white, Irish men.
A BBC spokesman said: “As this is a live legal matter, we have no comment to make.”
Dentons, which bills itself as the world’s biggest law firm, with over 160 offices in more than 80 countries, is also defending the BBC in a separate Irish defamation case where Gerry Adams, the former Sinn Féin leader, is suing the broadcaster.
That case, which is due for hearing next year, relates to allegations that the BBC falsely alleged that Adams sanctioned the murder of Denis Donaldson, a former Sinn Féin official who was a British spy, in 2006. The BBC is fully defending that case.
