Recanted interviews by Corbett children detail violent incidents between their father and Molly Martens
THE SENTENCING hearing of Molly and Tom Martens has heard interviews from Jason Corbett’s children describing incidents of violence between the Limerick man and his wife.
The disputed interviews were excluded from the father and daughter’s first trial; however, they were played in full before Judge David Hall at Davidson County Superior Court in North Carolina on Wednesday.
The children, aged 10 and eight at the time, were interviewed by social services four days after their father was killed in his home.
Jack and Sarah Corbett were interviewed the same day as a memorial service for their father and Ms Martens had told the children that Mr Corbett’s family would try and take them back to Ireland after the service.
Ralph Riegel reports for the Irish Independent that the children were in the sole custody of the Martens family for the four days following the Limerick businessman’s death.
Both interviews were recanted by the children almost immediately after they returned to Limerick.
In her video interview, Sarah said that her father would often lose his temper with Ms Martens and had pulled her hair.
She also told the social services that her grandmother, Molly’s mother Sharon, had given her and Jack a telephone number and code word to use if there was an emergency in their home.
Both Jack and Sarah, who are now aged 19 and 17, were present in the courtroom as the interviews were played and were visibly emotional. At one stage Sarah left the courtroom in tears.
Meanwhile, Jack was shown saying in the video interview that his parents “did not get along very well”.
He added that his father had pushed Ms Martens to the ground and on another occasion he had punched her.
On Monday, Mr Martens pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter of Mr Corbett while Ms Martens entered a “no contest” plea to the same charge.
Mr Corbett was beaten to death with a baseball bat and concrete paving slab in his home.