Man found guilty of manslaughter of Tipperary pensioner Timothy Murnane

A 32-year-old man has been found not guilty of murder but guilty of the manslaughter of an elderly neighbour who suffered fatal head injuries when he disturbed the accused breaking into a garage at his home in Co Tipperary.

Sean Harding of Marian Terrace in Tipperary town 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, as well as pleading guilty to three burglaries on the same day.

At the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork on Friday, the jury of five men and seven men returned after seven hours and 40 minutes of deliberations over two days to find Harding not guilty of the murder but guilty of manslaughter by a margin of 10 to two.

Judge Siobhan Lankford thanked the jury and adjourned the matter until November 9th to hear submissions from prosecution counsel, Karl Finnegan and defence counsel, Dean Kelly.

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 burglar Sean Harding at his home.

He was discovered lying unresponsive outside his garage at his home at around 9.30pm by his wife Margaret and he was rushed by ambulance to University Hospital Limerick. However, he never regained consciousness and died at the hospital on September 14th, 2025.

Finnegan had told the jury that intention was the issue in the case, particularly where the accused man had already admitted the unlawful killing by pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Murnane when he disturbed in him breaking into his garage to steal tools to sell to fund his drug addiction.

“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,” Finnegan said in relation to Harding’s assault of Murnane.

Defence counsel Kelly acknowledged his client’s behaviour on the night was “low, vile and squalid where he was creeping around his neighbourhood, 150m 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 decided he intended to murder him or cause him serious injury,” said Kelly, adding that there was nothing trivial about the crime of manslaughter to which the defendant had pleaded guilty.

Cross-examined, State Pathologist Dr Heidi Okkers agreed with Kelly when he put it to her that, “all of the fractures to the back of the head and the side of the head were caused by the fall – that is, all of the fracture injuries and those fractures and the associated brain injuries caused Mr Murnane’s death.”

Earlier, the jury had watched recordings of Harding being interviewed by Det Gardaí Conor Gleeson, Diarmuid Bourke and Kevin O’Keeffe following his arrest on September 13th including one where they informed him that Murnane had died in hospital.

“Jesus Christ Almighty, you’re joking me – Jesus Christ I’m after killing someone, I didn’t mean to kill anyone,” said Harding who vomited when he was told Murnane had died and became so upset the detectives were unable to continue with the interview.

Harding admitted to gardaí that he broke into Murnane’s garage to steal tools that he could sell to feed his drug habit. He admitted he got a fright when Murnane disturbed him but insisted that he only pushed Murnane and knocked him to the ground and never hit him.