Woman found husband bleeding on ground after going out to investigate noise, trial hears

A woman has told a murder trial how she prayed over her husband when she found him unconscious and lying on the ground with head injuries after he went to investigate a noise at his garage at his home in Co Tipperary.

Margaret Murnane told the trial of Seán Harding for the murder of her husband Timothy (80) that she was in the sittingroom of their home in Tipperary town after 9pm on September 12^th, 2025, when her husband heard a noise and told her he was going out to investigate.

Harding (32), of Marian Terrace in Tipperary town, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Timothy Teddy Murnane but guilty to his manslaughter at the Central Criminal Court in Cork.

Margaret Murnane told how some minutes had passed after her husband had left their kitchen to investigate the noise from the garage, so she went out to check on him only to discover him lying near the pedestrian entranceway at the side of the garage.

“It was dark; I nearly fell over him,” she said. “I looked down, and he was lying on the ground, with his legs near the garage door. When I saw him on the ground, I said, ‘What happened? Why are you down there? Why are you lying on the ground?’ But I got no response whatsoever.

“There was blood at the back of his head and blood [coming] out of his mouth. I was trying to put my husband on his side, to do something for him. I was trying to hold him, but he was just lying there. There was no response whatsoever.”

Margaret Murnane said she rang her son Patrick to say her husband had fallen, but while she was on the phone, she noticed the side door to the garage was open, and the light was on. She saw a black bag on the floor, which she did not recognise.

She said her son arrived and rang the emergency services. “It felt like forever [waiting for the ambulance],” she said. “I said prayers for him.”

Patrick Murnane said he arrived at the family home between five and 10 minutes after his mother rang him to say his father had fallen, and, when he arrived, he found her bent over his father who was unconscious on the ground.

“I went over immediately, and his breathing was very laboured – I spoke to him in a loud voice to try and make contact, but there was no response – he was bleeding from the head and at the time I presumed he had fallen,” he said.

Patrick Murnane said it was only while he was on the phone to the emergency services that he noticed the side garage door was open and he saw tools and a black holdall on the ground.

He thought maybe there had been a burglary and informed the emergency services to notify gardaí.

Sgt Chris McGrath and Garda Colin Hanley were first on the scene at 10.30pm and Hanley told the court that after checking on Teddy Murnane, he looked into the garage and saw a black holdall bag on the floor to the left of the door and tools scattered on the floor to the right.

McGrath said they suspected there had been a burglary, so they rang Det Supt James Tierney to declare it a crime scene, and they cordoned off the area and preserved it until 12.45am when they were relieved.

They then went canvassing for CCTV footage in the area and found a camera nearby at a house and downloaded footage.

It showed a man, later identified as Harding, walking towards Murnane’s house with a black holdall at 9.34pm and running back two minutes later without the holdall.

The case continues.