Murder accused ‘broke down’ when brother asked about burglary in which Tipperary pensioner was fatally injured

A man has told a murder trial that his younger brother nodded and began to cry when he asked him if he had any involvement in a burglary in which an older man was assaulted and suffered injuries that proved fatal.

Seán Harding (32), of Marian Terrace, Tipperary town, has pleaded not guilty at the Central Criminal Court in Cork to the murder of Timothy Teddy Murnane (80), but guilty to his manslaughter at the man’s home on St Michael’s Avenue, Tipperary town on September 12th, 2025.

Justin Harding told the trial on Friday that when he first asked his brother on September 13th, 2025 if he had anything to do with the break-in in which Murnane was assaulted, Sean Harding “swore he had nothing to do with it”.

The witness said he was not living at the family home at the time of the incident and he and his brother had a falling out some years earlier. He said he became annoyed with Seán for continuing to do drugs while living at home with their mother.

Justin Harding said he phoned his mother on September 13th, 2025, after hearing about another incident where a house went on fire in Pearse Park, Tipperary town. During the call, he said his mother told him about the break-in and assault at the Murnane property, so he visited to see if she was okay.

“I was concerned that Seán might be involved. I confronted my brother and he swore to me that he didn’t do it,” the witness said. “I asked him again later did he do it and he sort of teared up and nodded. He just said, ‘don’t tell the mother’.”

Justin Harding said he had his daughter in his van outside his mother’s house, so he drove her home before deciding what to do. “I said I would do the right thing, so I went to the Garda station and told them what he (Seán Harding) had told me.”

Under cross-examination by defence counsel Dean Kelly, Justin Harding confirmed he made a statement to gardaí in which he stated that once his mother told him about the burglary at Murnane’s garage, he wondered if his brother might be involved.

“I immediately thought he [Seán] might be involved – it’s like something he would do. He’s robbing sheds all his life, he’s f***ing stupid. When he’s on the drugs, he goes on a robbing spree; everyone knows it,” Justin Harding told gardaí.

Pressed by Kelly about a comment he made to gardaí that what happened to Murnane was not his brother’s “form”, Justin Harding said although his brother used to break into sheds, he avoided any confrontation.

“He’s not a violent robber; he would go into a shed without you knowing it.”

The trial also heard evidence from Det Sgt Colin Lawlor from the Garda Technical Bureau. He said he lifted three prints from the door of the garage near where Murnane was found unresponsive by his wife, Margaret, on the night of September 12th, 2025, after he went to check out a noise outside.

Det Garda Gerard Bourke, from Tipperary town Garda station, testified that he recovered a black holdall bag from the garage. Margaret Murnane and her son, Patrick, confirmed this did not belong to the family, and Bourke brought the bag to Forensic Science Ireland for examination.

Paul Kelly said he found mixed DNA samples on the handles and shoulder strap of the bag and the major male DNA profile in both samples provided a match with Sean Harding’s DNA. He said the likelihood that it belonged to anyone else other than Harding was 1,000 million to one.

The court heard that testing was able to confirm that one of the three prints lifted by Lawlor, which was found on the frame of the door to Murnane’s garage, matched Harding’s left palm print.

The case continues.