Witnesses recount events around east Cork deaths of two girls and father

The Coroner's Court has heard how a 43-year-old man killed his young daughters before deliberately crashing his car in east Cork, and taking his own life.

John Butler had been suffering from depression in the months before the incident near Ballycotton in last November.

Witnesses told the court how they had seen John Butler buy petrol for a five-gallon drum on the morning of November 16, and drive off erratically. One man said he saw smoke in Mr Butler's Toyota Yaris just before it crashed into a ditch and burst into flames.

Friends and relatives became concerned for his six-year-old daughter Zoe and her sister Ella. They gained entry to the family home near Ballycotton and found the girls' bodies in the sitting room.

Ella had been smothered and Zoe strangled.