CNN
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Constance Marten and Mark Gordon could become warm and caring parents when they wanted.
The family judge described interaction with the children as “excellent,” and the two were able to act “in an affectionate and polite way.”
But even the experienced legal sum, the famous court case, surprised, painted another picture of a couple who stuck with each other and suspected external authority.
This week, Marten and Gordon were found guilty of manslaughter after their newborn daughter, Victoria, was found dead in a groceries bag inside an unused shed. They will be declared later this year.
Police discovered Victoria’s body on March 1, 2023, two days after her parents were arrested after a 53-day search.
Marten and Gordon were travelling through the UK with their newborns, trying to avoid the authorities, despite winter conditions, travelling from city to city, eventually sleeping in their tents and eventually sleeping in their tents.
They believed Victoria would be taken away from them after the four previous children were taken to foster parents, London Metropolitan Police said in a statement released after their conviction.
The nationwide search and subsequent trials grabbed Britain, particularly due to Marten’s privileged background and Gordon’s violent criminal past.
Marten, 38, grew up in a wealthy noble family with royal connections. She received a private education, traveled to Africa and worked as a journalist for Al Jazeera.
According to British PA media, she met Gordon, known as “Soulmate” at a Incense Shop in North London in 2014. Prosecutors said they have been in a relationship since 2016.
Gordon, a 51-year-old senior, 13, has a “serious criminal history with serious sexual violence” committed as a teenager, court documents show.
Details of the case from a Florida court show that he was convicted in 1989 of armed sexual assault, armed invasion, trickery, robbery and robbery.
The couple’s relationship was linked to domestic violence, according to documents from a London Family Court judge written before Victoria’s body was found.
In 2019, when Marten became pregnant with the couple’s third child, Gordon pushed her during an argument or fell out the window causing “serious injuries,” family court documents say. Gordon did not seek medical assistance, which said he “has put her life and the life of her unborn child at risk,” they added.
The two appear to have a dislike for authority and despite concerns about the child’s well-being, they repeatedly did not engage with child protection officials.
In January 2022, the judge discovered that the couple had a relationship “before all other considerations,” including the health of their children, and ordered that the four children be placed under the control of the authorities.
They fled in late December 2022 when Marten was heavily pregnant with her fifth child.
In early January 2023, police in northern England began a nationwide search for Gordon and Marten after finding the placenta in a burnt-out car on the highway. According to Greater Manchester police, the car “completely destroyed” still had diapers and blankets remnants.
“The evidence suggests Constance had a very recent birth and she has not been evaluated by medical professionals,” Manchester police said at the time.
The next day, the couple travelled around the country, stopped several times before heading to New Haven, a seaside town overlooking the British channel.
The couple traveled mostly by taxi and paid hundreds of pounds per trip. Marten had about £19,000 in his bank account when he was arrested, the PA said.
CCTV footage from the hotel in Harwich, Essex, where the pair stayed on January 6, showed the baby under Marten’s coat, Metropolitan Police said.
The next day, the couple discovered the purchase of a stroller, which was too big for newborn Victoria. Police said they dumped the strollers in alleys and transferred the baby into grocery bags.
The public reported seeing the couple multiple times over the next few weeks. On January 16th, they were seen living in tents at a nature reserve near Brighton. Temperatures in the area often fell below night freezing. They had lived in the tent for over a month, police said.
According to the Crown Prosecutor’s Office (CPS), the pair had previously been warned by social workers that it was “completely inappropriate” for babies to live in their tents.
On February 27, 2023, the couple was arrested after being found at a Brighton store. Baby Victoria was not found anywhere.
A roadside interview shared by Metropolitan police shows officers asking the baby’s parents where she is. Marten did not answer the question and instead asked why she was arrested. Gordon repeatedly sought food from the police.
Two days later, Victoria’s decomposition bodies were found in the garden shed of the community where they were staying. The pathologist was unable to confirm how she died.
According to London’s metropolitan police, Marten eventually told police that the baby died while the couple was asleep.
CPS said it is not known exactly when Victoria was born or died, but it was believed that she had been alive for several weeks and was forced to endure the cold while living outdoors. CCTV footage showed her inadequately dressed, with her hat, socks and even a blanket.
“Their reckless behavior was driven by a selfish desire to keep the baby at all costs, leading to her tragic death,” said Samantha Yerand, senior prosecutor at CPS London, about Marten and Gordon. They dumped their phones and avoided them using their bank cards to the point that they were starving because they tried to avoid police, she added.
Court reports from the couple’s trial in old Bailey, London, describe the case as being confusing.
The defendants repeatedly caused confusion in court and often failed to appear in court.
At one point, Pennsylvania said it had revealed information to the ju judge regarding Gordon’s rape conviction.
Marten was represented by a total of 14 judges in two exams in 2024, and a retrial that ended Monday was held, Pennsylvania reported.
Gordon also sought five lawyers at both trials, the agency said, but towards the end of the retrial he was ultimately on his behalf.
A retrial was requested by the CPS after the 2024 ju judges failed to reach a verdict on whether the pair was guilty of manslaughter, but they were found guilty of charges involving child abuse. They lost appeals to those beliefs.
On Monday, the couple were unanimously found guilty of serious negligence and manslaughter. British media reported that Gordon said he would sue from the dock.
According to the PA, Judge Mark Lecraft said at one point that Gordon and Marten had never “never” had ever “behaved” before encountering the “type of attitude” shown to him, adding that the two teenagers who were in court earlier that day “behaviored pretty good – pleaded guilty to murder.”
Jaswant Narwal, chief prosecutor at CPS London, calls the trial “challenging” and says he is convinced that “Marten and Gordon use different antics to irritate and delay the court process, showing little repentance for their actions.”
det. insp. Dave Sinclair, who first responded to a call about the burnt-out car that sparked the search for Victoria, called her death “all evasion” and led to her parents’ actions alone.
“I feel really sad. This is a tragic waste of life,” he said.
“There was ample opportunity for them to ask for help, address baby welfare concerns, move forward with the authorities and get that help, and potentially have different outcomes.”
