THE CHILDREN OF Jason Corbett, the Irishman killed in the US last year, told social workers that their father hit their step-mother, who is accused of his killing.
Molly Martens-Corbett, 32, and her 66-year-old father Thomas Martens are charged with murder of Jason Corbett at their home in North Carolina last year.
Both are claiming self-defence in the case, according to court documents, the Winston-Salem Journal reports.
Corbett died last August of blunt force trauma to his head. According to the documents, Thomas Martens hit Corbett with a baseball bat and a paving stone. He claims that he had done this because Corbett was choking his wife.
Corbett’s children Jack, 9, and Sarah, 7, were brought back to Corbett’s family in Ireland shortly after his death.
Accusations
Martens’ lawyers last month applied to exclude from evidence a video interview with Jack carried out here in Ireland.
They say that it is not reliable and that both children had previously told US authorities that their father had been physically violent with his wife in separate interviews.
“Each child reported similar incidents of verbal and physical abuse by Jason Corbett inflicted upon Molly Corbett,” the motion says.
Sarah told a child advocacy worker that her dad started fights for “ridiculous reasons” and would “hurt her mom”. The motion details further accusations made by the child, including name-calling, hair-pulling and an incident where Jason Corbett allegedly ran over his wife’s foot with a car.
Jack also said in his interview, according to the court motion, that he saw his father “punch, hit and push” his step-mother and push her once in order to look through her phone.
The new interview given by Jack on 27 May in Ireland was “in sharp contrast” to the statements given in the aftermath of the death of his father.
Justice
A Facebook post on a campaign by Corbett’s family hit back at the motion claiming that there were attempts to “blacken” Jason Corbett’s ”good name & his character”.
It read:
“You could feel the love his children are surrounded by, knowing whatever the future holds for them that they are protected, nurtured & loved just as they were by their loving father.”
Both Martens-Corbett and her father are due before court in North Carolina on 8 August.
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