Wife prayed over dying Tipperary man (80) found bleeding beside garage
Margaret Murnane found her husband Teddy unconscious and bloodied after he went to investigate a noise. Sean Harding (32) denies murder but admits manslaughter.
Wife found husband (80) unconscious and bleeding outside garage, murder trial told
Margaret Murnane knelt over her husband Teddy and said prayers for him in the darkness outside their Tipperary home before an ambulance arrived, the Central Criminal Court sitting in Cork heard on Thursday.
The Irish Independent reports that the 80-year-old retired bus driver was found lying near the pedestrian entranceway at the side of his garage at St Michael's Avenue, Tipperary town, on the night of 12 September 2025, after he had gone out to investigate a noise.
Sean Harding (32), of Marian Terrace, Tipperary town, is on trial charged with the murder of Timothy (Teddy) Murnane. He denies murder but has pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
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"There was no response whatsoever"
On day two of the trial, Margaret Murnane told the jury that she and Teddy had been sitting in the sitting room sometime after 9pm when he mentioned hearing a noise and said he intended to go outside to check on it.
After several minutes had passed, she went out to find him.
"It was dark — I nearly fell over him — I looked down and he was lying on the ground, with his legs near the garage door," she told the court. "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."
She described blood at the back of his head and blood coming from 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."
Mrs Murnane initially phoned her son Patrick to say that Teddy had suffered a fall. While on the call, she noticed the side door of the garage was open, the light inside was on, and a black bag was on the floor that had not been there before.
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Son arrives to find father unconscious
Patrick Murnane rushed to the family home and contacted the emergency services. Mrs Murnane told the court that the wait for the ambulance "felt like forever." She stifled tears as she described praying over her husband during that time.
Patrick Murnane said that when he arrived, he found his mother 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.
It was after he spotted the open garage door, a set of tools and a black holdall on the floor that he began to suspect a burglary had taken place.
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CCTV places Harding at the scene
Garda Colin Hanley told the jury that he and Sgt Chris McGrath arrived at the scene at 10.30pm that night. Gardaí cordoned off the area and declared it a crime scene. They subsequently obtained CCTV footage from a householder on Marian Terrace.
The footage showed a man, later identified as Harding, walking in the direction of the Murnane home carrying a black bag at 9.34pm. Two minutes later, the same footage captured him running back in the opposite direction — this time without the holdall.
When arraigned earlier in the week, Harding pleaded guilty to three burglary charges: two at the Murnane home on 11 and 12 September 2025, and a third unrelated burglary on the same evening.
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Trial expected to conclude before mid-November
The case continues before Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford and the jury on Friday, and is expected to conclude well in advance of mid-November.
Teddy Murnane had worked as a bus driver with Kavanagh Coaches before his retirement. He was laid to rest at St Michael's Cemetery in Tipperary town following a requiem mass at St Michael's Church. He is survived by his wife Margaret, two sons, a daughter, grandchildren, and extended family and friends.
Source: Irish Independent