Jury to begin deliberations in Co Tipperary murder trial

A jury is expected to begin deliberations later in the trial of a man charged with murdering an elderly neighbour after breaking into a garage at his home in Co Tipperary.

Sean Harding (32), of Marian Terrace in Tipperary Town, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Timothy “Teddy” Murnane (80) but guilty to his manslaughter at his home at St Michael’s Avenue, Tipperary Town, on September 12th, 2025. He has pleaded guilty to three burglaries on the same day.

The trial has heard Murnane suffered multiple external injuries including bruises and abrasions to his face, head, neck, chest, back, arms and legs as well as internal injuries fractures to his skull and bleeding on the brain following the confrontation with Harding at his home.

During interviews after his arrest on September 14th, 2025, Harding admitted to gardaí that he broke into Murnane’s garage to steal tools that he could sell to feed his drug habit. He said he got a fright when Murnane disturbed him. He insisted he only pushed Murnane and knocked him to the ground, and said he never hit him.

Judge Siobhan Lankford is due to complete her charge to the jury at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork on Thursday.

On Wednesday, prosecution counsel Karl Finnegan told the jury that intention was the issue in this case, particularly where the accused man had already admitted the unlawful killing by pleading guilty to manslaughter.

“Intention can be formed in the spur of the moment … You can infer from the nature of the force used that he intended the natural and probable consequences of his actions,” he said.

He asked the jury to consider the defensive injuries found by State Pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers on the deceased man’s arms and the age difference at the time of the encounter between the defendant and the deceased.

Defence counsel Dean Kelly acknowledged that his client’s behaviour on the night was “low, vile and squalid where he was creeping around his neighbourhood, 150 metres from his own home, bent on stealing possessions bought through the hard work of his neighbours.

“But that unappealing description does not make him a murderer… He is a murderer only if you decide he intended to murder him or cause him serious injury,” said Kelly.

Kelly also asked the jury to consider the evidence of Justin Harding in relation to his younger brother Sean going to the Murnane’s to carry out a burglary. “It is like something he would do. He is robbing sheds all his life. He is f**king stupid … He is not a violent robber. He is just a robber,” Justin Harding had said.

The barrister also referred to the defendant’s repeated assertion to gardaí during interviews that “I did not mean to hurt that man” and what happened when he encountered Murnane at the door of the garage “was a million miles away from intending to murder”.