Convicted murderer Molly Martens has had four years added to her jail sentence in the US.

She was convicted of the murder of her Irish husband Jason Corbett last year in North Carolina.

Her sentence was extended by four years because of a number of breaches of prison rules. 

Martens (34) and her father, retired FBI agent Thomas Martens (68), were convicted of second-degree murder last August.

She now faces serving 24 years behind bars, and has a scheduled release date of April 2041.

 Limerick man Jason Corbett | File photo

Ralph Riegel is Southern Correspondent with the Irish Independent.

He said: "Over the last year, Molly Martens has had three separate prison rule breaches or infractions - and she had a custody review on August 1st.

"The North Carolina Department of Public Safety indicated yesterday that her projected release date has been put to 2041 - which means effectively there's an extra four years gone on to her projected release date.

"But she does have the potential to get that reduced again if she behaves herself over the next, say, 19 years, if she cooperates with prison authorities, reform programmes, education programmes and work initiatives within the prison system."

The infractions relate to Martens leaving an area without permission in November last year.

The other two occurred within 24 hours of each other in May.

One of these was when she refused to cooperate or obey a direct instruction from a prison guard - the second was being caught in possession of contraband or material that was not permitted or sanctioned by prison authorities.