Man killed daughters before crashing car

GARDAÍ believe that 43-year-old John Butler killed his two daughters at their home in east Cork before dousing his car in petrol and deliberately crashing it at high speed into a ditch.

It is believed that Ella, two, and her six-year-old sister, Zoe, were probably killed before 9am at the house at Ballybraher, Ballycotton.

Mr Butler’s wife, Una, had left the house earlier that morning to go to work in Cork city. He was supposed to be minding the children and should have taken Zoe to the local national school in Ballycotton.