RESIDENTS in Limerick city have expressed support for two children at the centre of a US custody battle by holding a candlelight vigil.
The event aimed at highlighting the plight of ten-year-old Jack Corbett and his eight-year-old sister Sarah took place last night outside City Hall.
The children’s Limerick-born father Jason Corbett (39) was found with fatal head injuries at the family’s Winston Salem home in North Carolina in the early hours of August 2.
Their American stepmother Molly Martens and her father, Thomas Martens, a former FBI agent, have both been questioned about Mr Corbett’s death.
On the night Mr Corbett lost his life, Mr Martens reportedly made a 911 call saying he had had “an argument” with his son-in-law and “struck him with a baseball bat”.
It is understood that police later recovered a bat from the house.
The children, whose mother Mags died in 2006, have been staying with Ms Martens at a house owned by her brother since their father died.
Their Limerick relatives are currently locked in a custody dispute with the Martens family, with a hearing expected to take place tomorrow to decide if they should be handed over to the Corbetts and allowed to return to Ireland, where they lived up until four years ago.
Mr Corbett’s sister Tracey Lynch and her husband David have been in the US trying to gain access to the children since they learned of the father’s violent death.
