Constance Marten and rapist partner Mark Gordon jailed for killing baby

Mother-of-five Constance Marten and her rapist "Daddy Bear" boyfriend have been jailed for a total of 28 years after their baby daughter died when they took her on the run to live rough.

Baby Victoria's dead body was found by police at the bottom of a discarded Lidl bag, hidden under rubbish including a Budweiser can and an egg mayonnaise and cress sandwich package, which had been left in a shed on an allotment in Brighton. During her young life she had been taken by her mum Marten and dad Mark Gordon on a journey criss-crossing the country, in a bid to avoid the authorities.

Marten, 38, and Gordon, 51, both denied manslaughter by gross negligence of their daughter between January 4 and February 27, 2023, but were convicted following a retrial and appeared at the Old Bailey today to be sentenced for that crime and other convictions.

Marten and Gordon were each sentenced to 14 years behind bars, with Gordon also subjected to four more years on extended licence. As Judge Mark Lucraft KC handed down his sentence, he told them: "There has been no expression of remorse from either of you," adding they had been "seeking to blame everyone else other than yourselves for what happened".

Seven jurors had returned to court to see the parents sentenced along with Marten’s mother Virginie de Selliers, who had attended her first trial in 2024, and was sat in the public gallery.

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The pair had their first four children taken into care and they went on the run, planning to stop their newborn "being taken by the state". They had been reported missing in early January 2023 and travelled around the UK to try and conceal their whereabouts.

Paying hundreds of pounds for taxis, the couple, with the Victoria visited Liverpool, Harwich, London, Colchester and eventually East Sussex amid a major hunt to find them. The defendants were caught on CCTV scavenging in bins for food even though Marten had received thousands of pounds from a trust fund and had £19,000 in the bank.

They were finally arrested in Brighton last February 27 and baby Victoria's decomposing body was found by police two days later.

The couple stood trial on a host of charges but when a jury was unable to reach verdicts on all of them, a retrial was ordered. Gordon, who had already served more than 20 years in prison in America for rape, decided half way through proceedings to represent himself.

The Old Bailey jury was told the pair camped on the South Downs in wintry conditions, after they abandoned their car weeks earlier when it burst into flames near Bolton, Greater Manchester amid the high-profile manhunt. The court heard that the couple kept Victoria's body in the shopping bag for days or even weeks after her death.

Marten told jurors Victoria was born on Christmas Eve 2022, and died on January 9, 2023. The prosecution alleged Victoria died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping in a “flimsy” tent. In her evidence, Marten told jurors that the baby died after she “blacked out” and fell asleep over her after feeding her.

Aristocrat Marten comes from a wealthy family, with her father Napier Marten serving as one of Queen Elizabeth's page boys. She told the court she “never really had a strong connection” and eventually became estranged from, despite still receiving having access to a large trust fund, the court heard.

She said that her family were prejudiced towards Gordon and did not approve of their relationship. Marten said that she was living in fear and that her “number one priority” was to protect Victoria.

She told jurors that she has found Victoria’s death “very difficult to live with” but that it “wasn’t due to neglect in any way”. It is alleged Victoria was inadequately clothed in a babygro and that Marten had got wet as she carried the baby underneath her coat.

Marten told jurors that the tent was intended to be a “pit stop” to avoid “prying eyes”. She wept as she said that she would “turn back time” if she knew Victoria was in danger, adding that they “spent so long trying to protect her”.

She said: “She was on my lap, her head was on one of my forearms, I had flopped forward, my forehead was on the floor of the tent. I fed her and then I burped her and she usually liked to be held for a while. She liked to be held close to us.

“I was holding her on my lap and tapping her to help her sleep and I just woke up in that position. I woke up because I knew something was wrong. I just felt it in my spirit. I brought her out of my jacket and she was completely limp. She was completely limp and she was pale and her lips were a kind of purply colour.”

Marten grew emotional as she went on: “I just knew she wasn’t alive and I felt responsible because I was holding her so my assumption was that I had fallen asleep on her.”

The court heard that on January 12, Marten and Gordon went to a Texaco garage where they filled a glass bottle with petrol with the idea of cremating Victoria’s body.

Asked if she reported Victoria’s death, Marten said: “At that stage no I was just… in the movies, I don’t know, accidentally someone dies they panic and they think, oh my gosh… I just thought they were going to say I was some evil mother, a murderess, that sort of thing.”

She said she did not trust the police to carry out an investigation after “such a big media furore around us”. She said she thought “lots of times” about handing herself in. But anytime I thought about it, I just panicked and I saw my other four children and I thought… they are going to chew us out. I don’t trust the police.”

Cross-examining, prosecutor Joel Smith KC then asked her if leaving her daughter’s body in a bag of rubbish was a “despicable thing” to do. Marten objected to his line of questioning, saying that Mr Smith was “diabolical” and a “heartless human being”.

During the retrial, prosecutor Tom Little KC told jurors that in 1989, Gordon, then aged 14, held a woman against her will in Florida for more than four hours and raped her while armed with a “knife and hedge clippers”. Within a month, he entered another property and carried out another offence involving “aggravated battery”, Mr Little said.

Jurors were told that, in February 1994, Gordon received a sentence of 40 years’ imprisonment, of which he served 22 years. Mr Little told jurors that the first set of offences occurred on April 29, 1989, in Florida and consisted of one offence of armed kidnapping, four offences of sexual assault and one offence of armed burglary.

The prosecutor also asked Detective Sergeant Ian Valentine: “Did he attempt to vaginally rape her?”, “did he orally rape her and perform other sexual assault offences?” and “was that female held by him for a period of four-and half-hours against her will in the property”?

Det Sgt Valentine replied “yes” to all the questions. Mr Little said Gordon’s second set of offences occurred on May 21, 1989 and consisted of armed burglary and aggravated battery at a property occupied by a family while armed with a “flat-headed shovel”.

The prosecutor asked the officer: “Once inside the property, did he beat a male occupant with a shovel about the head?” Det Sgt Valentine replied: “Yes.”

Jurors were also told Gordon had pleaded guilty to assaulting two police officers who had been called to a maternity ward in Wales in 2017 after Marten gave birth to one of Victoria’s older siblings. Gordon had to be forcibly restrained during the incident and a new father had stepped in to help the two female officers before more police arrived to arrest him.

Gordon made no reference to his troubled past when he took to the stand, but told jurors: “Everybody faces challenges in life.” He said his mother was a hard-working nurse who was passionate and empathetic and had instilled compassion in him.

He said: “The idea I was underprivileged was not the case. My mother had two or three houses. She always provided for us. She showed me empathy.”In his earlier evidence, Gordon blamed the police manhunt for setting off a series of “calamitous” events culminating in Victoria’s death.

He insisted that he and Marten “put ourselves out” to ensure the baby’s wellbeing and “no-one could have anticipated” her death. In an emotional outburst in the witness box, Gordon had complained they were treated like “monsters” and dragged through the mud like “scum” over what happened and had not had time to grieve for their child.

A first jury was discharged after being unable to reach a verdict on the charges of manslaughter by gross negligence and causing or allowing the death of a child.

The first jury found both Marten and Gordon guilty of perverting the course of justice and concealing the birth of a child. Marten and Gordon both lost an appeal against those convictions.

In August, Gordon returned to court for a hearing about an outstanding charge relating to his failure to keep in contact with police as a registered sex offender. He was alleged to have breached his notification requirements while on the run from authorities between January 3 and February 27, 2023.

Prosecutor Joel Smith KC told the court that in light of his recent conviction for manslaughter, the Crown Prosecution Service took the view that it was no longer in the public interest to pursue the charge.

Gordon and Marten were chastised by Judge Lucraft while their defence barristers were on their feet for a "total lack of respect" by passing notes to each other in the dock.

During mitigation, Philippa McAtasney KC for Gordon said: "His children being taken away affected their whole lives. Decisions were made that he very much regrets. He said he couldn't breathe once the baby died. He said he regrets that this has happened the way it happened and that something couldn't be done.

"He has to live with this for the remainder of his life. His whole life has imploded."

Ms McAtasney added that Gordon experienced “significant trauma” after he was convicted of rape at the age of 14 and served 20 years in prison in the United States. She said his childhood was spent growing up behind bars and had shaped his personality in adulthood.

Tom Godfrey, for Marten, read character witnesses on behalf of her mother, stepfather and housekeeper. Her mother told the court that she was "horrified with the courts and newspapers for how they had portrayed her". She added that Constance showed "sheer determination when it came to her fighting for her children".

Mr Godfrey added that Marten was suffering from complex PTSD triggered by the removal of her first four children and the death of baby Victoria.

Judge Lucraft told Marten and Gordon: "From the end of December until your arrest you did not give thought to the care of your baby." He told the court that a family court judge had previously ruled that their first four children were at significant risk of harm from Marten and Gordon and had been placed in foster care.

He told them: "You both claim baby died after just one night in the tent. Your accounts cannot be relied upon. When you were arrested neither of you were willing to help police about where your baby's body was. What you did to baby Victoria can only be described as neglect."

The judge accepted the prosecution case that baby Victoria died from hypothermia after being exposed to “significant cold stress”. He rejected the defendants’ claims that Victoria was smothered in a “terrible accident” as they slept in the tent. He added their offending was made worse because the baby was vulnerable and the defendants failed to listen to past warnings.

Marten and Gordon were declared equally culpable for their baby's death and were also each given five years in prison for perverting the course of justice, 18 months for concealing the birth of a child and 18 months for neglect, all to run concurrently to the 14 year sentences for manslaughter by gross negligence.