{"id":15326,"date":"2026-08-22T13:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T13:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/gbr\/london\/15326\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T13:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T13:33:15","slug":"constance-marten-granted-permission-to-appeal-sentence-for-killing-her-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/gbr\/london\/15326\/","title":{"rendered":"Constance Marten granted permission to appeal sentence for killing her baby"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aristocrat Constance Marten has been granted permission to appeal the 14-year jail sentence she was handed for her baby\u2019s death while on the run with her partner.<\/p>\n

Marten, 39, and convicted rapist Mark Gordon, 52, were in hiding when their baby daughter, Victoria, died in a tent on the South Downs in southern England in January 2023.<\/p>\n

They had fled authorities to prevent Victoria being taken into care, as four other siblings had been before, their Old Bailey trial was told.<\/p>\n

\"Constance\"ConstanceConstance Marten and Mark Gordon (Metropolitan Police\/PA)<\/p>\n

Marten and Gordon were found guilty of her manslaughter, child cruelty, concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice following two trials spanning six months each.<\/p>\n

Judge Mark Lucraft KC jailed them both for 14 years and handed Gordon a further four years on extended licence.<\/p>\n

Marten has now been granted permission to appeal the sentence, and renewed her application for permission to appeal her gross negligence manslaughter conviction.<\/p>\n

A court date is yet to be set.<\/p>\n

\"CCTV\"CCTVCCTV footage of Constance Marten holding baby Victoria under her coat outside Special Connection in East Ham, London (Metropolitan Police\/PA)<\/p>\n

Judge Lucraft accepted the prosecution case that baby Victoria died from hypothermia after being exposed to \u201csignificant cold stress\u201d.<\/p>\n

He rejected the defendants\u2019 claims that Victoria was smothered in a \u201cterrible accident\u201d as they slept in the tent.<\/p>\n

The offending was made worse because the baby was vulnerable and the defendants failed to listen to past warnings.<\/p>\n

In a televised sentencing, Judge Lucraft told the defendants: \u201cIt is clear throughout the period neither of you gave much or any thought for the care or love for your baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge said they had displayed \u201carrogance\u201d and treated Victoria to \u201cneglect of the most serious type\u201d.<\/p>\n

Police had launched a nationwide hunt after the couple\u2019s car burst into flames on a motorway near Bolton, Greater Manchester, on January 5 2023.<\/p>\n

The defendants travelled across England and went off-grid, sleeping in a tent on the South Downs where baby Victoria died days later.<\/p>\n

After seven weeks on the run, the defendants were arrested in Brighton.<\/p>\n

After a desperate search, police found their baby dead amid rubbish inside a Lidl bag in a disused shed nearby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aristocrat Constance Marten has been granted permission to appeal the 14-year jail sentence she was handed for her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[60],"class_list":["post-15326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-city-of-london","tag-city-of-london"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/gbr\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/gbr\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/gbr\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/gbr\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/gbr\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/gbr\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/gbr\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/gbr\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/gbr\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/gbr\/london\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}