Families of Jastine Valdez and Mark Hennessy meet to 'exchange sympathies'

The family of murdered student Jastine Valdez has met with the family of her killer Mark Hennessy, it has emerged.

Jastine (24) was abducted and murdered by Hennessy, a married father-of-two, in Co Wicklow on Saturday, May 19 and her body was found on the grounds of a disused golf course at Puck’s Castle in Shankill on Monday, May 21.

Hennessy (49) was killed when he was shot by gardai following a confrontation near the Dell site in Cherrywood, south Dublin, the following day.

Through the gardai, both families released a joint statement yesterday evening confirming that they have met.

“In the midst of our grief both the Valdez and Hennessy families met on Friday morning where we exchanged sympathies with each other on the tragic circumstances that resulted in the loss of our respective love ones,” the statement read.

“Both families request privacy at this very difficult time”.

The meeting comes soon after the Hennessy family held a private funeral for the 46-year-old at Mount Jerome Chapel in Dublin’s Harold’s Cross on Saturday afternoon.

During the service, the father of Mark Hennessy told mourners that the family ‘were broken’ following the recent events.

“I fix things. That’s my job. I go to work and I fix things,” he told the service, as reported by the Irish Times.

“But for the past week I have been waking up in the morning to see my darling sweetheart wife broken. She’s broken. And I can’t fix her,” he said.

“I look at my sons and daughters… and they’re broken. I can’t fix them. I look at Mark’s uncles, aunties, cousins, nephews, nieces and his beautiful, beautiful daughters. They’re all broken and I can’t fix them.”

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