How US detectives were unable to get Molly Martens’ medical files released before murder trial

That was despite the fact North Carolina detectives had learned Martens spent time in a Georgia psychiatric institution being treated for a severe depressive episode just weeks before she flew to Ireland to work as a nanny for Mr Corbett’s two children, then aged just four and two years.

She lied on her CV, supplied to Mr Corbett, by claiming she was a foster parent, and later lied to her friends, and even her own bridesmaids, that she was the biological mother of Mr Corbett’s youngest child, Sarah.

The revelation came as a voluntary manslaughter sentencing hearing in North Carolina for Martens and her father, retired FBI officer Tom Martens (73), last week heard not only that the former nanny had battled bouts of depression over the years but that she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

In contrast, not a single word was said about Martens’ mental state during the 2017 murder trial.

Medical reports on the Tennessee woman caused such concern for Judge David Hall at Davidson County Superior Court last week that, having jailed Martens for a further seven months for Mr Corbett’s manslaughter, he ordered a full psychiatric assessment report be compiled on her by the North Carolina Department of Corrections over the next two weeks.

Judge Hall also directed that Martens be immediately placed on suicide watch.

Martens and her father have resumed serving minimum four year and three month sentences (51 months) for beating the Limerick father-of-two to death with a metal baseball bat and a concrete paving slab in the master bedroom of his North Carolina home in the early hours of August 2, 2015.

Both insisted they acted in self-defence after claiming the Limerick man had attacked his wife. The pair were found uninjured at the scene whereas Mr Corbett’s skull had been so badly shattered that a pathologist said he could not accurately count the number of blows inflicted.

Molly and Tom Martens were jailed last week after reaching an 11th-hour plea bargain agreement with Davidson County prosecutors.

Both were handed sentences ranging from a minimum of four years and three months to a maximum of six years and two months after pleading to voluntary manslaughter.

In return, the state agreed to drop second-degree murder charges against both.

The father and daughter had already served three years and eight months of 20-25 year prison sentences imposed in August 2017 for the second-degree murder of Mr Corbett.

However, both convictions were quashed by the North Carolina Supreme Court after they upheld the Martens’ appeals two years ago.

The pair received minimum manslaughter sentences at the middle-end of the scale after their legal teams had launched what Mr Corbett’s children, Jack (19) and Sarah (17), described as a calculated attempt at a character assassination of their father.

A self-made man described by his Limerick family as “a kind-hearted, gentle giant who abhorred violence,” Mr Corbett was instead depicted as an abuser, a bully, a jealous and controlling husband as well as a miser who was obsessed with money being spent on fruit and lights being accidentally left on.

Prosecutors claimed six years ago during the original murder trial that Mr Corbett was first attacked while in bed and then beaten while helpless on the floor in an assault sparked by a dispute over control of his two children.

Earlier, an attempt had been made to drug him.

Tom and Molly Martens then delayed calling the police and paramedics to ensure Mr Corbett was dead before they arrived.

Mr Corbett’s life insurance policy had been inexplicably changed several months before – excluding his two children and leaving everything to Molly Martens.

When Davidson County police officers searched Mr Corbett’s Panther Creek Court home, they never recovered his mobile phone or his personal laptop.

The psychiatric assessment to be carried out on Martens in a North Carolina prison will now be the third conducted on her over the past two years. Dr David Adams conducted an assessment before the North Carolina plea bargain arrangement and carefully noted Martens’ “laser-like focus on Jack and Sarah”.

He found that: “The primary focus of her (Molly’s) existence before she married Jason Corbett was to adopt these two children, then divorce him and then have custody rights of the two children.”

Prosecutor Alan Martin said that Ms Martens wanted to engineer a domestic confrontation that night whereby she would get hurt by Mr Corbett in the presence of her mother and father, Tom and Sharon Martens, and could then seek emergency custody of the two children.

“Molly had a plan – and that plan was coming to fruition,” said Mr Martin.

The manslaughter hearing – like the 2017 murder trial – was not told that Martens was only weeks out of a Georgia psychiatric institution when she travelled to Ireland on a one-way ticket to take up a job as nanny for Jack and Sarah. Gardaí at Shannon Airport became suspicious of her because of the one-way ticket and she was ordered back to the US.

However, she then purchased a return ticket and successfully entered Ireland a few days later via Dublin Airport and took up the job with Mr Corbett whose wife, Margaret ‘Mags’ Fitzpatrick-Corbett, had died in November 2006 from a respiratory incident.

Her death took place just weeks after the birth of her daughter, Sarah.

Martens was engaged to her US boyfriend at the time of her decision to relocate to Ireland.

It has now emerged that Martens’ medical records – in particular, her psychiatric records – were in Tennessee and Georgia.

Despite being aware of her history of psychiatric problems, North Carolina detectives were unable to secure the release of her private medical records for the 2017 murder trial.

Instead, the only evidence offered was from a Davidson County clinic where Martens had been treated for a genetic abnormality of the veins in her leg.

Mr Corbett’s Irish family and friends only became aware of Martens’ issues with depression when she was found in his Limerick home with all the lights turned off and blinds drawn lying curled up in a ball on the floor having torn out lumps of her hair.

The father-of-two only became aware of her problems with depression when they had started a relationship and were planning their marriage.

He decided to relocate his young family from Ireland to North Carolina because Martens was homesick and this would allow her to be closer to her parents.

Mr Corbett’s sister, Tracey Corbett-Lynch, said that her brother’s belief in the goodness of others “was his greatest vulnerability”, and that had he given up on Martens he would still be alive today.