Tipperary murder trial: Defence argues Harding 'nowhere near' murder intent
Closing arguments heard in Cork in the trial of Seán Harding, accused of murdering 80-year-old Teddy Murnane during a shed burglary in Tipperary in 2025.
Closing speeches clash over intent as Tipperary murder jury prepares to deliberate
The defence lawyer for a Tipperary man accused of murdering a pensioner during a burglary told the Central Criminal Court on Wednesday that his client's intention had been to steal from a shed — and that was "a million miles away from intending to murder", irishexaminer.com reports.
Seán Harding, 32, of Marian Terrace, Tipperary Town, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 80-year-old Timothy (Teddy) Murnane at St. Michael's Avenue, Tipperary Town, on 12 September 2025. He has, however, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and admitted three charges related to burglary on the same occasion.
Prosecution: intention formed in an instant
Prosecution senior counsel Karl Finnegan told the jury that intention was the central issue in the case, given that the unlawful killing itself was no longer in dispute. "Intention can be formed in the spur of the moment," Finnegan said. "You can infer from the nature of the force used that he intended the natural and probable consequences of his actions."
Finnegan walked the jury through the sequence of Garda interviews with Harding. It was not until the third interview, he said — when Harding was shown CCTV footage from a neighbouring property placing him at the scene — that he even acknowledged being present. By the fourth interview, Harding was telling gardaí he had visited the Murnane family's shed twice that night, returning on the second occasion to steal more tools.
Finnegan pointed to the moment Harding finally said: "I am after killing someone, I didn't mean it." The senior counsel characterised this as an acknowledgement of causing the death while denying the intent — a distinction the jury would have to weigh.
He also referred to the defensive injuries found on the deceased man's arms, and drew the jury's attention to the age gap between the two men at the time of the encounter: Harding was 31; Murnane was 80. On the genuine distress Harding displayed upon learning that Murnane had died in hospital, Finnegan said he did not dispute it was sincere, but argued it did not shed light on what Harding's intention had been at the moment of the attack.
Defence: a lowlife burglar, not a murderer
Dean Kelly, senior counsel for Harding, did not spare his own client in his characterisation of the offending. "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."
Kelly nonetheless argued that such conduct did not amount to murder. "He is a murderer only if you decided he intended to murder him or cause him serious injury." He stressed to the jury that manslaughter, the charge to which his client had already pleaded guilty, was not a trivial matter.
The defence counsel invited the jury to consider the testimony of Harding's older brother, Justin Harding, who told the court that burgling sheds was "like something he would do — he is robbing sheds all his life." Justin Harding added: "He is not a violent robber. He is just a robber."
Kelly outlined the prosecution's core contention — that when Harding heard Murnane inserting a key into the shed door, he formed the intention to murder him "in that second", transforming from a "lowlife burglar to murderer". Kelly contested this characterisation, pointing also to Harding's statement to gardaí: "I did not mean to hurt that man."
On the medical evidence, Kelly noted that the pathologist's findings indicated the blunt force injuries to Murnane's face would not, in themselves, have been fatal. It was the single impact when the back of Murnane's head struck concrete that caused his death.
Charge to the jury continues Thursday
Ms Justice Siobhán Lankford is due to continue her charge to the jury on Thursday, with the trial being heard at the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork.
Source: Google News IE — Crime (en)