Daniel flies blind into Tony's turmoil

Daniel flies blind into Tony's turmoil
By LUKE McILVEEN in Canberra
March 24, 2005
Daily Telegraph

DANIEL O'Connor flew halfway around the world to spend Easter with his new family, but was forced to change his plans after discovering Tony Abbott was not his father.
The Daily Telegraph has learned Mr O'Connor accepted an invitation to spend Easter at the Abbotts' home at Forestville, in Sydney's north, and returned from London especially for the long weekend.
He had planned to fly to Port Hedland next week to spend time with his mother, Kathy Donnelly, and her husband and five children.
The devoutly religious Mr Abbott invited Mr O'Connor to spend a relaxing Easter weekend with his wife and three children, believing the attention that followed their dramatic reunion last month would have faded.
But the extraordinary news this week that the pair were not related forced Mr O'Connor to change his plans and he is now likely to spend Easter in Canberra with his adoptive parents.
Mr O'Connor is based in London but was raised in Canberra and worked as an ABC sound technician in the Federal Parliamentary press gallery.
Ms Donnelly this week revealed that soon after the reunion was made public she received a call from "Bill", a man she had slept with once, who suggested Mr O'Connor might be his.
Ms Donnelly has already told her story to the Nine Network, but it's understood she has also been approached by the ABC's Australian Story and several women's magazines.
"Daniel was really looking forward to spending some time with the Abbotts away from all the glare of the past month and getting to know his new siblings," a source close to Mr Abbott said yesterday.
"That's not happening now. Daniel thought it would be better to spend the holiday with his adoptive family in Canberra."
Mr Abbott tried to concentrate on his job as Health Minister yesterday, visiting a private psychiatric hospital in Melbourne.
"A lot has been said, a fair bit probably had to be said, but I don't know that there is anything more anyone can say and I think it's time to allow everyone involved – particularly Kathy and Daniel – to reclaim their own lives," Mr Abbott said.
"There is no longer any Abbott connection, so Daniel and Kathy, Daniel's parents, Daniel's natural father – all of them – should be allowed to live their lives without the media games that inevitably follow around someone who is a minister in the Government."
One of Mr Abbott's closest political mates, Treasurer Peter Costello, yesterday pledged his support.
"I feel for him very deeply and I told him this," Mr Costello said.
"To have thought you found a child and then to find out that you never had the child must have been one of the most rollercoaster rides that you can imagine and he has handled it with great dignity," he said.
Another colleague described Mr Abbott as "absolutely distraught" behind the scenes.
Concerned Cabinet colleagues have told the Health Minister to take all the time he needs to recover from the mix-up, which saw him wrongly convinced he had an illegitimate son for 27 years.