Tipperary murder trial: Brother confronted accused before reporting him to gardaí

'I went down and confronted my brother... He just said, "Don’t tell the mother"'

Seán Harding, aged 32, of Marian Terrace, Tipperary Town, denies murdering Teddy Murnane, pictured, at his home on St Michael's Avenue, Tipperary Town, on September 12, 2025

The brother of a Tipperary man on trial for the murder of an 80-year-old pensioner has told a jury that he confronted the accused before reporting him to gardaí.

Seán Harding, aged 32, of Marian Terrace, Tipperary Town, denies murdering Teddy Murnane at his home on St Michael's Avenue, Tipperary Town, on September 12, 2025. Mr Harding has admitted unlawfully killing the 80-year-old and has pleaded guilty to manslaughter. 

He has also admitted three burglary-related offences arising from the incident.

At the trial at the Central Criminal Court sitting  in Cork on Friday, 45-year-old Justin Harding agreed with prosecution counsel Karl Finnegan that he had fallen out with his brother and had little contact with him, despite Seán Harding continuing to live with their mother at the family home.

Justin Harding told the court that on September 13, 2025, he phoned his mother after hearing about a fire at Pearse Park in Tipperary Town. During the conversation, she mentioned an incident involving Teddy Murnane, who lived nearby.

“With what you learned from the conversation you were concerned your brother might have been involved?” Mr Finnegan said. 

Justin Harding said: “I went down and confronted my brother. He was lying down. He swore down he didn’t do it… I said, ‘Did you do it?’ He teared up. Then he kind of nodded his head. That was it… He just said, ‘Don’t tell the mother’. He didn’t say ‘murder’, he just said he done it.”

The late Mr Murnane was, at that time, in intensive care at Limerick University Hospital.

Mr Finnegan said to the defendant’s brother, “You were in shock?” 

Justin Harding replied, “100%, yeah. I went into my van… I couldn’t live with that guilt hanging over me. I said I’d do the right thing. I went down to the Garda station and told them.” 

Defence examination

Defence senior counsel Dean Kelly said he was meeting Justin Harding for the first time in court as a prosecution witness in his brother’s trial. Mr Kelly said: “You worked all your life. You would not be able to say that about your brother?” 

He replied, “No, no.” 

Mr Kelly quoted from Justin Harding’s statement to gardaí: “I immediately thought, did Seán have something to do with it? He is robbing sheds all his life. He is fucking stupid.” 

Mr Harding said in the witness box on Friday, “I had a gut feeling. When he (Seán) goes on drugs he goes on a robbing spree — houses and sheds.” 

Mr Kelly said Seán Harding was no stranger to breaking into houses, sheds, and vans to steal property, and was usually gone before anyone realised he had been there. 

He also referred to evidence from Justin Harding that he had noticed a small cut on Seán Harding's right wrist.

Mr Kelly put it to the witness that Seán Harding initially denied having anything to do with Teddy Murnane. He said that when the defendant told gardaí about his involvement, he became extremely upset in the interview room to the extent that he was vomiting.

“His form would be creeping into sheds, houses, and vans without confronting people, is that right?” Mr Kelly asked. 

The witness replied: “Yeah… I mean, he is not a violent robber.” 

Mr Kelly said at the end of his cross-examination of the accused’s brother, “It is not easy for you to be here?” 

Justin Harding replied: “No, no, he is my brother at the end of the day, you know.” 

The trial continues before Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford and the jury of seven women and five men.