Tipperary murder trial: Accused was 'a million miles away from intending to murder'

Meanwhile, the prosecution counsel invited the jury to consider the defensive injuries on the deceased man’s arms and the age difference at the time of the encounter between the defendant and the deceased — respectively, 31 and 80 years of age

Teddy Murnane died in September 2025

The Tipperary man on trial for murdering a pensioner during a burglary had a low and mean intention to go thieving from his shed but “it was a million miles away from intending to murder”, the defence lawyer said in his closing speech on Wednesday.

The prosecution counsel said in his speech: “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.” 

32-year-old Seán Harding of Marian Terrace, Tipperary Town, said he was not guilty of murder but was guilty of the manslaughter of 80-year-old Timothy (Teddy) Murnane at St. Michael’s Avenue in Tipperary town on September 12, 2025. He admitted three charges related to burglary on the occasion.

Prosecution senior counsel Karl Finnegan said intention was the issue in this case, particularly where the accused man had already admitted the unlawful killing by pleading guilty to manslaughter.

Mr Finnegan went through the series of interviews that gardaí had with the accused man and said it was not until the third interview when he was shown CCTV of himself from a neighbouring house at the relevant times, that Seán Harding even admitted being there. 

By the fourth interview the accused was telling gardaí that he had gone to the shed belonging to the Murnane family twice that night, and had gone back the second time to steal more tools.

Mr Finnegan said the jury could consider and assess this movement in the interviews from denial to admissions, until the accused eventually said: “I am after killing someone, I didn’t mean it.” Mr Finnegan said this statement showed the accused acknowledging that he caused the death but denying the intention to do so.

The prosecution senior counsel referred to the defendant’s brother, Justin Harding’s view that he did not believe his brother intended to kill Mr Murnane and that he is not a violent robber. Mr Finnegan said it was unlikely that anyone with a brother or sister in Seán Harding’s situation could believe that he had an intention to do it.

In relation to the evidence of Seán Harding’s extreme distress on hearing that Mr Murnane had died in hospital, Mr Finnegan said he did not suggest that the distress was not genuine but he said that it could mean a number of different things and did not indicate what his intention was at the time of his encounter with the deceased.

He invited the jury to consider the defensive injuries on the deceased man’s arms and the age difference at the time of the encounter between the defendant and the deceased — respectively, 31 and 80 years of age.

Defence closing speech

Dean Kelly, senior counsel for the accused, said of his client: “His conduct was low, vile and squalid. 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 decided he intended to murder him or cause him serious injury.” He said there was nothing trivial about the crime of manslaughter to which the defendant had pleaded guilty.

Mr Kelly asked the jury to consider the evidence of the defendant’s older brother Justin Harding who said, in relation to his brother going to the Murnane’s shed to carry out a burglary: “It is like something he would do. He is robbing sheds all his life. He is f***ing stupid… He is not a violent robber. He is just a robber — do you know what I’m trying to say.” 

He also referred to the defendant’s assertion to gardaí, “I did not mean to hurt that man.” The defence senior counsel said the prosecution case was that when Seán Harding was in the shed and heard the late Teddy Murnane putting the key in the door, and “that Seán Harding formed the intention to murder him — in that second he is transformed from lowlife burglar to murderer.” 

Mr Kelly said that from the pathologist’s evidence, whatever blunt force injuries Mr Murnane sustained to his face would not, of themselves, have killed him, and that it was the single injury that occurred when the back of his head hit the concrete that resulted in his death.

Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford will continue her address to the jury on Thursday at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork.