Quiet fishing village plunged into shock

PEOPLE living in the quiet fishing village of Ballycotton have been left numb after a father killed his two young daughters and then took his own life.

Ella Butler, 2 and Zoe, 6, were found dead at their family home a mile west of the village at about 10.30am yesterday.

Three-quarters of an hour earlier, their father, John, 43, had driven his Toyota Yaris at high speed into a ditch not far from the family home. The car burst into flames and he died at the scene.