Court challenge against refusal to compensate children of man shot dead in 2005

A High Court challenge has been brought against the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal’s refusal to make a payment to the children of a man who was shot dead in 2005.

The application has been brought by Eddie Cunningham Cummins and Erica Cunningham Cummins, who are the two children of 31-year-old Eddie Cummins Snr who was murdered outside his home in Ballincollig, Co Cork, by a gunman on August 13th, 2005.

The court heard that a Garda investigation stated that Mr Cummins was shot four times at close range in an incident that is believed to have been “drug-related”.

The car in which the shooter used to flee the scene was subsequently found burnt out some distance away.

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Nobody has ever been prosecuted or convicted of his murder.

At the time of Mr Cummins’s killing his son was just 19 months old, while his daughter was born several months after his death.

Arising out of his murder, his children, through their mother, Michelle Cunningham, who was also the victim’s partner, applied in 2011 to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal, a state body that compensates the victims of violent crime and whose members are appointed by the Minister for Justice.

In August 2021, a single member of the tribunal rejected the application on the grounds that the bid for compensation was made outside of the required time limit of two years and three months after the violent incident.

The application was also rejected because Mr Cummins Snr had 27 previous convictions, for offences, including possession of drugs for sale and supply, and assault, and because his killing had “all the hallmarks of a gangland drugs killing”.

Under article 13 of the scheme, compensation will not be paid where the tribunal is satisfied that the victim’s conduct is such that it is inappropriate that they receive an award.

The applicants appealed that initial refusal by the tribunal.

The applicants argued in their appeal that article 13 was not applicable in these cases.

It was submitted that the children are entirely innocent of anything their father may have done and were making a claim under the scheme as dependents of somebody who had died due to a violent crime.

Article 13 only applies in the case when an application has been made for compensation by a person whose own conduct, character, and way of life may make it inappropriate that they be compensated, it was claimed. A refusal in the two children’s case was not justified, it was also submitted to the appeals panel.

In July 2022 the appeal was rejected by the tribunal, and the original decision not to award them compensation was upheld.

Arising out of that decision, the applicants, from Heron’s Wood, Carrigaline, Co Cork, have brought judicial review proceedings against both the Tribunal and the Minister for Justice.

They want the court to grant them various reliefs including an order quashing the tribunal’s decision to refuse to make an award under the scheme.

They also seek declarations including that the tribunal’s decision was irrational, in breach of fair procedures, and was made outside the tribunal’s powers.

They further seek declarations that the decision amounts to breaches of the rights under EU law, the Irish Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights.

The matter came before Mr Justice Charles Meenan at the High Court on Monday.

While only the plaintiffs were represented in court, the judge granted the applicants permission to bring their challenge.

The judge made the matter returnable to a date in February.