Victim’s family tell of relief that two-year ordeal is finally over
A SMILE appeared on the face of Jason Corbett’s twin brother as multiple text messages confirming the jury’s verdicts came through to his phone. Pausing briefly, Wayne Corbett took a deep breath as he absorbed the dramatic moment. Speaking at his parents’ home in Janesboro, Limerick, he said: “It’s been a long two years. “We’re just delighted as a family that the whole ordeal is over and done with and they have been found guilty.” The moment, Wayne agreed, was “bittersweet”. He added: “We’re delighted it’s finally at an end. It’s not a celebration — Jason is still gone — but finally people have been found guilty, and justly so, for murdering Jason.” His 76-year old mother Rita was too emotional to talk to reporters. Wayne added: “She’s delighted. “It’s been a great relief for my elderly parents [Rita and John] that this has finally come to an end, that we can all now grieve for Jason without having to worry about the court case. “Hopefully we can start to try to put this behind us and start to concentrate and grieve for Jason. “I’m overwhelmed [with emotion] but I’m not shocked with the verdict. I was totally confident the jury would find them guilty. “I was at the trial for three weeks and for me, it was the only conclusion they could come to.” Wayne revealed he received the initial contact from the Martens family about Jason’s death. However, he claimed the phone call made to him was 10 hours after his twin brother’s murder. Wayne said: “It’s surreal. It’s like we were living a nightmare for the past two years, ever since I personally got that phone call on August 2, 2015. “I remember walking down the road here and getting a phone call that Jason was dead.” He added the news was delivered bluntly before the line was cut. Wayne said: “When we got in touch with the police they told us he was killed from blunt-force trauma. It was 10 hours after Jason was killed that we heard. “As far as I know the police asked Molly Martens did she want them to contact us and she said no on a number of occasions.” Wayne added Martens and her father “finally got their just deserts”. He said: “Justice has been done.” Jason’s sister Tracey, along with her husband David Lynch, were granted full custody of his children Jack and Sarah following a bitter legal battle in the US before Molly and Thomas Martens were charged with murder. The kids’ mother and Jason’s first wife Margaret “Mags” Fitzpatrick tragically died of an asthma attack in 2006. He later hired Molly Martens as a nanny and they got married in 2011, but he refused to allow her to adopt his children. Wayne added the kids were being well taken care of by their family in Limerick. He added: “Our prime focus going forward is the welfare of Jack and Sarah, that’s what Mags and Jason would have wanted.”