THE WIDOW of Irishman Jason Corbett, who died in the US during the summer, has described her heartbreak at losing a custody battle for his two children.
Mr Corbett died in a “domestic incident” on August 2, leaving his 10-year-old son Jack and a daughter Sarah, 8, behind.
And an appeal lodged in a North Carolina court in August by his widow, Molly Martens, has been rejected by the judge.
Mr Corbett, 39, died in his home in North Carolina in the early hours of August 2.
He had been living in the US state with Ms Martens, his second wife, for the past few years - and died from head injuries in circumstances that remain unclear.
The children spent the weeks after their father’s death in the care of his widow and their stepmother Molly Martens.
But Ms Martens, who was named as a “person of interest” in the death of her husband, lost custody of the children when it was revealed that Mr Corbett had named his sister and brother-in-law as the children’s carers in the event of his death in a will made some years previously.
Ms Martens lodged her appeal to have Jack and Sarah returned to her in August, days after the judge ruled that they should move back to Ireland with Mr Corbett’s family.
Her appeal was dismissed by a US judge yesterday who ruled that the original decision should stand – and that the children should live with their biological family.
“I am heartbroken, and devastatingly sorry. Our lives together may not have mattered in the eyes of the Law, but they are what matters most to me,” she wrote on Facebook after the judge made the ruling.
Mr Corbett’s death left Jack and Sarah orphans, after their mother passed away suddenly in 2006.
Ms Martens was employed as their nanny in Limerick in the years after her death before the relationship with Mr Corbett developed – and they eventually moved to her native North Carolina.
No arrests have been made in the investigation into Mr Corbett’s death to date – but Ms Martens and her father Thomas Martens were both named as “persons of interest”.
Read Ms Martens’ statement in full below
It's not about the best interest of the child. It's about the law.
Our lives do not matter in the eyes of the law. A Will made when you were "infants," and before I came into your lives is what matters. It does not matter that clear decisions were made after this short document- moving across the ocean to another country, a marriage... It does not matter that I took you to every doctor or dentist appointment. It does not matter that I signed every parent form you ever had at school from age four up.
It does not matter what you wanted. Nor does it matter what your teachers, coaches and friends witnessed in regard to our relationship.
It does not matter that I kissed you goodnight and tucked you in every night. It does not matter that I held you as you got your vaccinations or helped you with your homework or read you stories.
It does not matter that you have given me Mother's Day cards every year.
"She is not even a real parent. She is not even blood related."
What matters, in the eyes of the law, is that I do not share your blood and I am not listed as your guardian on a document created before I met you.
I am heartbroken, and devastatingly sorry.
Our lives together may not have mattered in the eyes of the Law, but they are what matters most to me.
Jack and Sarah- I love you and will always be your mommy.
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