Jenifer Devine receives fully suspended sentence for withholding information on murder

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Jenifer Devine received an 18-month sentence, suspended in full for 18 months, at the Central Criminal Court for withholding information on the murder of Michael Tormey. Judge Melanie Greally made the suspension conditional on Devine entering a bond to keep the peace and be of good behaviour.

Devine pleaded guilty to the charge on the day her trial was due to open last November. The proceedings were reported on 1 May 2026.

Her lawyers submitted that she had been in an “unhealthy and emotionally abusive” relationship with “a man of very significant violence”. The judge noted evidence that Devine was afraid of her husband, Christopher Devine, and that she was the sole carer of their young children. Detective Garda Sharon Hanley accepted that Devine had repeatedly told gardaí during interviews that she was afraid of her husband and referred to him as “a snake”.

The judge also said there was objective evidence that Devine was suffering acute mental distress and instability on the evening before the murder, alongside undisputed evidence that Christopher Devine had consumed large amounts of cocaine and was behaving erratically. Judge Greally said an immediate custodial sentence was not necessitated.