She's dead to me, says daughter of affair mum
Children told 'Nana is in heaven'
Family feud: Hugo and Fiona Porter
The woman who alleges that her husband and mother had a torrid affair says she will never speak to her again.
"As far as I am concerned, she is dead. I have told my children their Nana is gone to heaven," Fiona Porter said.
Allegations of the 53-year-old mother having an affair for more than two years with her son-in-law behind her daughter's back were aired in Limerick District Court last Tuesday.
Representing Mrs Porter, 24, who was before the court for drink-driving while barely two months into a sentence for a similar conviction, controversial solicitor John Devane said it was the first time he had ever heard of such an episode which, he added, had left the life of the Limerick mother of three sons "shattered".
Those inside the courtroom, including four reporters who strained to hear with the poor acoustics, looked on in utter disbelief as it was revealed that Fiona committed the offence as she attempted to flee from a house after catching her mother, Bernadette Garvey, and her husband, Hugo Porter, 34, in bed together in the early hours of June 28 last.
With all looking on intently, Judge Aeneas McCarthy took Mrs Porter's circumstances into account and suspended a four-month prison sentence.
But the the plot thickened towards the weekend with bitter recriminations between the mother and daughter.
It was revealed that Hugo had in fact been safely secured in Limerick Prison on the night his wife's solicitor alleged he was bedding his mother-in-law and Bernadette Gavin denied she slept with her eldest daughter's husband.
Hugo Porter -- no stranger to the gardai -- is in custody since May 31 last and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment on June 19 for motoring offences committed in Cappamore, Co Limerick, in September 2006.
Fiona and Hugo grew up four doors apart in St Patrick's Villas in the east Limerick village of Castleconnell. Fiona left Newport Secondary School in her Junior Cert year.
Despite the gap of 10 years, the couple came together when Fiona was 17 and married in 2004. They have three sons aged five, three and six months.
Their relationship has being strained in recent years, and Fiona claims her husband has been unfaithful to her before last week's revelations.
After committing a number of motoring offences, including driving a car down the main street of Cappamore village at 120kmh in September 2006, Hugo fled to the North.
Bench warrants were issued for his arrest, but Fiona moved up to him in Letterkenny, Co Donegal, early last year. They split in August, but Fiona said she returned to him as she was living in a bed and breakfast with two children while heavily pregnant.
Again, she left him in April and moved in with her mother in Clarecastle, Co Clare. Hugo soon followed her back to the mid-west region.
However, according to Fiona, it was her mother who always had her eye on Hugo.
Last Friday, she revealed that she caught the pair in bed together at her mother's home on May 22 last.
"The night I caught them, the three of us were drinking in my mother's house. We had run out of cigarettes, so I went out to my brother's flat to see if I could get a few fags off him -- but there was no answer there, so I went straight back up the road.
"They thought I would be gone longer, and I caught them," Fiona claims.
She fled the home and has since lived in two separate shelters for women in Limerick city with her children.
Fiona spoke briefly to her mother a week after the episode.
From this conversation, she claims she learned the pair "she trusted the most" first slept together in Fiona's home in the leafy Limerick suburb of Castletroy while she was at her sister's bedside in the city's maternity hospital as she gave birth in early 2006.
This weekend, she accused her solicitor John Devane of telling lies in court, a claim he completely rejected.
"Everyone thinks I'm lying to avoid jail. I didn't, I told John Devane the truth before court," Mrs Porter claims.
"I told the truth to him, I didn't lie at all. I am not taking the blame for John Devane. He lied in the court and now he's trying to make f**king money off me. I told him what happened," she alleged.
"I'm sorry I told John Devane to use that. He had the notes written down on my charge sheet, word for word he had it all correct beforehand," Mrs Porter claims.
In response, John Devane has vehemently denied his client's claims and said he received specific instructions from her that she witnessed the incident on the same night she was arrested for drink driving.
"I got my instructions from her in the morning in mitigation. They didn't change to a different set of instructions in the afternoon," he said.
"If this now is the case, she has given misleading instructions to her solicitor, the court and the gardai. The story I gave in court was 100 per cent as I received it.
"She is making lies up to cover herself up. While I do not wish to discuss my client's instructions, I have written evidence of my instructions.
"What money would I have made out of this? The only money I made was the legal aid fee from representing her in court and will be paid in due course. The only person who could have made money out of this is herself," Mr Devane said.
Fiona said that her second drink-driving conviction was a mistake.
"I know I am a good mother. I went out for a few drinks, it was my first night out drinking since I caught them. It's not like the kids were with me -- they were with the babysitter," she said.
"I went to a friend's flat and we had a couple of bottles of Bud. There were a few girls there and one of them wanted a lift home.
"She rang a taxi and they said it would be an hour and a half and she asked me for a lift. And, sure, with me being drunk, I did. I'd had a slow puncture for a couple of weeks and got a blow out and was looking for a garage to pull the car in, but that's what brought the attention of the guards," she said.
Fiona said she is now making arrangements for a legal separation from her husband, who is due out from prison in October pending good behaviour. She also hopes to secure a home from Limerick County Council in the near future and said she will never talk to her mother again.
"As far as I am concerned, she is dead. I have told my children their Nana is gone to heaven," she said defiantly.
Sadly, the impact of this family tragedy seems set to have a more devastating and far-reaching impact on three young brothers who are unaware of the publicity that surrounds the Porter and Garvey families.
- Barry Duggan
