Abuse priest’s family speak of ‘devastating’ effect on lives

Seán McCárthaigh

Julie Fortune, a sister-in-law of the dead priest, said the controversy had destroyed the childhood experiences of her four children, who had suffered regular taunts at school over the past number of years.

"We are carrying the sentence he should have got," she told RTÉ Radio 1's Liveline yesterday. Fr Fortune committed suicide in March 1999, shortly before he was due back in Wexford Circuit Court to face a series of charges relating to sexual offences committed on eight young boys in the parish of Poulfur, Co Wexford, over two decades.