Deirdre’s death highlights risks of parental abduction

IT is of small comfort to Christine O’Sullivan that the tragic end to the parental abduction case she was embroiled in was exceptional, Justice Minister Michael McDowell told a conference yesterday.

Ms O’Sullivan’s daughter Deirdre was taken by her father Chris Crowley, who after two years as a fugitive shot the little girl and then himself.

“Her harrowing testimony...brings home in a very real way the risks associated with parental abduction,” Mr McDowell told the Irish Centre for Parentally Abducted Children conference.