Couple jailed for 14 years each after killing their newborn daughter
Constance Marten, 38, and her partner Mark Gordon, 51, went on the run with their daughter Victoria to get away from social services after their four other children were taken into care. Victoria’s body was later found inside a shopping bag.
Marten, 38, who is from a wealthy family, and her partner Gordon, 51, were each handed sentences of 14 years at the Old Bailey on Monday.
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They went on the run with their newborn daughter, Victoria, to get away from social services after their four other children were taken into care.
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Victoria’s body was found with rubbish inside a Lidl shopping bag in the corner of an allotment in Brighton on 1 March 2023.
The pair had been the subject of a nationwide manhunt for 54 days.
Judge Mark Lucraft told the pair during sentencing that “neither of you gave much or any thought to the care or welfare of your baby”.
“Your focus was on yourselves,” he said, before adding, “There has been no genuine expression of remorse from either of you.
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“Whilst there have been expressions of sorrow about the death throughout, you’ve adopted the stance of seeking to blame everyone else other than yourselves for what happened.”
Sky‘s home affairs reporter, Henry Vaughan, reported that neither showed much emotion during sentencing, and that after they stood up, Gordon stared at Marten as she left the dock.
They were both convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence following a second trial at the Old Bailey.
Previously found guilty
They had previously been found guilty of perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, and child cruelty after an Old Bailey trial lasting almost five months.
A second trial was ordered after the first jury failed to reach a verdict on the manslaughter charges.
Marten is now seeking permission to appeal against her conviction for manslaughter. A previous application to appeal against her conviction for cruelty to a child was rejected in February this year.
Both trials were hampered by disruption and delays, taking up more than 33 weeks of court time, which – at an estimated cost of £30,000 per defendant a day – could have cost in the region of £10m.
A search for Marten and Gordon was launched after a placenta was found in the couple’s burnt-out car on a motorway in Bolton in January 2023.
Marten said they went on the run so their fifth child would not be removed from them after her other children were “stolen by the state”.
The couple spent vast sums of cash from her family trust fund on taxi journeys as they travelled from Bolton to Liverpool, to Harwich in Essex, to London and then to Newhaven on the south coast.
