Inga Ozolina murder trial hears garda evidence and self-defence account

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Inga Ozolina was on trial in the Central Criminal Court charged with murdering her boyfriend, Audrius Pukas, at The Malthouse in Roscrea, Co Tipperary, on 20 November 2016. She pleaded not guilty. The proceedings were reported on 8 May 2019.

Garda Diarmuid O'Connor told the court that Ozolina arrived at Roscrea Garda Station at 2.30am on 20 November and said she had killed her boyfriend and stabbed him. He said she was panicky, frantic, anxious and upset.

Defence counsel Caroline Biggs SC questioned whether the garda’s first notebook entry was a verbatim record and put it to him that the word “stabbed” did not appear in a later entry. He said he believed the first was exact and was unsure whether the later entry said “stabbed” or “stated”.

Detective Garda Stuart Beatty said that when Ozolina was charged with assaulting Pukas on 21 November, she denied assaulting him and said they had fought and she had acted in self-defence. The court heard she was later charged with murder.

Garda Grainne Tully described injuries noted on Ozolina and agreed under cross-examination that she had asked gardaí to call an ambulance for Pukas. Garda Anthony Fahy gave evidence about an earlier domestic incident involving the couple.

The prosecution contended there was no question of self-defence. The trial was continuing before Mr Justice Alexander Owens and a jury.