Man 'killed wife then started death blaze'

Two young children died in a fire, apparently started by their father after he murdered their mother, it emerged tonight.

The family of four were found dead in their rural home in Co Wexford - the second suspected murder suicide in the county in just over a year.

Businessman Dermot Flood died downstairs - where the blaze started - with a shotgun found nearby, while his beauty queen wife Lorraine was found dead upstairs.

Both suffered massive injuries not linked to the fire.

Their youngsters Mark aged six, and Julie aged five, died upstairs with the little boy’s body found on the landing.

Norma Doyle, principal of St Aidan’s National School in their home village of Clonroche, said the tight-knit community was struggling to come to terms with the deaths.

“We are all devastated,” she said.

“We are all struggling to come to terms with this dreadful tragedy – our school has lost two beautiful students.

“They were happy, bubbly children and we will miss them dreadfully.”

Counsellors and local clergy will be at St Aidan’s tomorrow to support Mark and Julie’s classmates and parents affected by the tragedy.

Gardaí said they are not looking for anyone else over the fire, or the deaths.

Last week marked the first anniversary of another apparent murder suicide in Co Wexford which claimed the lives of a family of four in the nearby village of Monageer.

Blind father-of-two Adrian Dunne, his wife Ciara, and their two children were found at their home on April 23 last year, three days after the family visited an undertaker to arrange funerals.

Local priest Father Richard Redmond, who also consoled the extended Dunne family following their loss, said prayers had been offered at Mass in St Clement’s Church, Cloughbawn.

Gardaí said there was no sign of a break-in at the home and, while detectives have refused to name a suspect, it is understood the investigation is focusing on Mr Flood.

The family was well known in south Wexford with Dermot running his father’s firm, Sean Flood Water Filtration, for the last few years.

They were considered well-off but the business is thought to have slowed in the last year.

Locals in the town said everything appeared normal in the family home.

The Health Service Executive said the Flood family was not under its care.

Dermot’s family were well known in GAA circles across the county.

Lorraine’s family, the Kehoes, were all also well known.

Denis Kennedy, a local Fine Gael councillor who is related to the Kehoes, said the area had once again been left in shock.

“It’s very, very hard to comprehend at all. They would have been very well known families who lived in the area all their life times.

“There’s no way anyone can console them. What words can you say that would offer them some comfort?”

The 38-year-old mother-of-two took part in the Rose of Tralee contest in 1991.

She worked as an aerobics instructor, ran keep-fit classes in the local parish hall, and was a first cousin of Reading and Ireland international footballer Kevin Doyle.

The striker was told the tragic news by team manager Steve Coppell ahead of a crucial match on Saturday in the club’s battle against relegation from the Premier League, but played on.

Coppell said: “His family had wanted to keep it from him until after the match but I felt the right thing to do was to tell him what had happened.

“He felt, very bravely, that he wanted to play and he was terrific given the circumstances. I can only imagine what he was thinking about before the game.

“He was obviously very upset but I think in a way playing in the game took his mind off it rather than just sitting thinking about it.”