Matthew Cummins given one-year term after suspended sentence revoked

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

Matthew Cummins was given a one-year prison term at the Central Criminal Court after a judge revoked the two-year suspended portion of his earlier sentence for impeding the apprehension of an offender. The proceedings were reported on 11 December 2023.

Ms Justice Siobhan Lankford substituted the one-year term after the State sought to reactivate the suspended two years. She backdated it to 5 December 2023, with no part suspended. She cited Cummins’s courses and good behaviour in prison and for a time after his release.

The breach followed criminal damage to an apartment block door in Edenderry, Co Offaly, on 29 May 2022. Cummins pleaded guilty to damaging the door. On 5 December 2023, Tullamore Circuit Criminal Court sentenced him to two-and-a-half years’ imprisonment, with the final year suspended.

Prosecuting counsel Kevin White said Cummins and another man forced the door while looking for a third man. The report said the pair returned after the occupants said they did not know where the man was, and were caught on CCTV. Defence counsel Seoirse Ó Dúnlaing said no threats or violence had been used against the occupants.

Cummins and James Davy were convicted of murder in 2016. In 2021, the Court of Appeal overturned their murder convictions, finding no evidence that they had been involved in a joint enterprise with Sean Davy to murder Thomas ‘Toddy’ Dooley, and substituted convictions for impeding Sean Davy’s apprehension. Cummins admitted trying to set fire to the body to destroy evidence.

In September 2021, Cummins and James Davy were each resentenced to nine years’ imprisonment with the final two years suspended. Their sentences were backdated and they were released with the suspensions in operation. Sean Davy failed in his appeal against his murder conviction and is serving a life sentence.