![\"Baby](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/525ba7332c3c6d9b9718704af35212f2.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nWhen they wanted, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon could be warm and caring parents.<\/p>\n
A family judge described interactions with their children as \u201cexcellent,\u201d with the two able to act in a \u201cloving and attentive manner.\u201d<\/p>\n
But a high-profile court case that stunned even seasoned legal figures painted a different picture, of a couple so fixated on each other and suspicious of outside authority they failed to care for their own child.<\/p>\n
This week, Marten and Gordon were found guilty of manslaughter after their newborn daughter, Victoria, was found dead in a grocery bag inside a disused shed. They will be sentenced later this year.<\/p>\n
Police discovered Victoria\u2019s body on March 1, 2023 \u2013 two days after her parents were arrested following a 53-day search.<\/p>\n
Marten and Gordon had travelled across the UK with their newborn, hopping from city to city and ultimately sleeping in a tent despite frigid winter conditions, in an attempt to evade authorities.<\/p>\n
They believed that Victoria would be taken from them after their previous four children were taken into foster care, London\u2019s Metropolitan Police said in a statement released after their conviction.<\/p>\n
The nationwide search and ensuing court cases gripped Britain, not least because of Marten\u2019s privileged background and Gordon\u2019s violent criminal past.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Baby Victoria’s body was found by police in this shed in Brighton, England. – Metropolitan Police\/PA Wire<\/p>\n
Putting their relationship first<\/p>\n
Marten, 38, grew up in a wealthy, aristocratic family with ties to the royal family. She was privately educated, travelled across Africa, and had worked as a journalist for Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
She met Gordon, whom she called her \u201csoulmate,\u201d at an incense shop in north London in 2014, according to Britain\u2019s PA Media. Prosecutors said they were in a relationship from 2016.<\/p>\n
Gordon, who at 51 is 13 years her senior, has a \u201csignificant criminal history, involving serious sexual violence\u201d which he perpetrated as a teenager, court documents show.<\/p>\n
A case detail from a Florida court shows that he was convicted of armed sexual battery, armed kidnapping, kidnapping, and burglary with a deadly weapon in 1989. He served 22 years in jail and was released in 2010, PA reported.<\/p>\n
The couple\u2019s relationship involved domestic violence, according to the documents from a London family court judge, written before Victoria\u2019s body was found.<\/p>\n
In 2019, when Marten was pregnant with the couple\u2019s third child, Gordon either pushed or caused her to fall out of a window during an argument, causing \u201cserious injuries,\u201d the family court documents say. Gordon did not seek any medical assistance, \u201cputting her life and that of the unborn child at risk,\u201d they add.<\/p>\n
The pair seemingly had an aversion to authority, repeatedly failing to engage with child protection officials despite concerns being voiced about their children\u2019s wellbeing.<\/p>\n
In January 2022, a judge found that the couple put their relationship \u201cbefore all other considerations,\u201d including their children\u2019s health, and ordered that their four children were placed in the custody of authorities.<\/p>\n
In late December 2022, when Marten was heavily pregnant with their fifth child, they went on the run.<\/p>\n
Burned-out car sparks hunt<\/p>\n
In early January 2023, police in northern England launched a nationwide search for Gordon and Marten after finding a placenta in a burned-out car on a highway. The car, which was \u201ccompletely gutted,\u201d still had remnants of diapers and blankets inside, according to Greater Manchester Police.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvidence suggests that Constance has very recently given birth and neither her (nor) the baby have been assessed by medical professionals,\u201d Greater Manchester Police said at the time.<\/p>\n
In the following days, the couple travelled across the country, making several stops before ending up in Newhaven, a seaside town overlooking the English Channel.<\/p>\n
The couple mostly travelled by taxi, paying hundreds of pounds per journey. Marten had roughly \u00a319,000 (around $25,000) in her bank account when she was arrested, PA said.<\/p>\n
CCTV footage from a hotel in Harwich, Essex, where the pair stayed on January 6, showed a baby underneath Marten\u2019s coat, the Metropolitan Police said.<\/p>\n
The next day, the couple were spotted buying a stroller, but it was too big for the newborn Victoria. They dumped the stroller in an alleyway and transferred the baby to a grocery bag, according to police.<\/p>\n
![\"CCTV](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/fb6d680f82e50cebe0a102d99621fab3.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
CCTV footage of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon in Whitechapel, London, while they were on the run. – Metropolitan Police\/PA Wire<\/p>\n
![\"CCTV](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/4a995a94f79facd6bb4af1866b1fb49a.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
CCTV footage of Constance Marten in a shop in Brighton on the date of her arrest. – Metropolitan Police\/PA Wire<\/p>\n
The public reported seeing the couple a number of times over the following weeks. On January 16, they were seen living in a tent on a nature reserve near Brighton. Temperatures in that area often fell below freezing at night. They lived in the tent for more than a month, police said.<\/p>\n
The pair had previously been warned by social workers that it was \u201cwholly unsuitable\u201d for a baby to live in a tent, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) \u2013 advice given in relation to their other children who were taken into authorities\u2019 care.<\/p>\n
On February 27, 2023, the couple was arrested after being spotted in a store in Brighton. Baby Victoria was nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n
Roadside interviews shared by the Metropolitan Police show officers asking the baby\u2019s parents where she was. Marten did not answer the question, asking instead why she was being arrested. Gordon repeatedly asked for the police for food.<\/p>\n
Two days later, Victoria\u2019s decomposing body was found in a shed in a community garden where they had been staying. Pathologists were not able to confirm how she died.<\/p>\n
Marten eventually told police that her baby had died while the couple was sleeping, according to London\u2019s Metropolitan Police.<\/p>\n
The CPS said it was not known exactly when Victoria was born or died, but it was believed she had been alive for some weeks and forced to endure the cold while living outdoors. CCTV footage showed her inadequately dressed, with no hat, socks or even a blanket.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir reckless actions were driven by a selfish desire to keep their baby no matter the cost \u2013 resulting in her tragic death,\u201d Samantha Yelland, senior prosecutor for CPS London, said of Marten and Gordon. They ditched their cell phones and avoided using bank cards even to the point of being starving as they sought to dodge police, she added.<\/p>\n
Couple\u2019s \u2018antics\u2019 disrupt court case<\/p>\n
Court reporting from the couple\u2019s trial at London\u2019s Old Bailey describes the proceedings as chaotic.<\/p>\n
The defendants repeatedly caused disruption in the courtroom, and often failed to show up to court.<\/p>\n
At one point, PA said, Marten revealed information about Gordon\u2019s rape conviction to the jury \u2013 even though this was deliberately not disclosed in court to ensure a fair trial.<\/p>\n
Marten was represented by a total of 14 barristers across two trials \u2013 one that took place in 2024, and a retrial that ended on Monday, PA reported.<\/p>\n
Gordon also sought the counsel of five lawyers across both trials, the agency said, but towards the end of the retrial, ended up representing himself.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/7a3769bb5982c9e66ce564654cfe013d.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
A court artist sketch of Mark Gordon giving evidence at the Old Bailey in London on Wednesday May 21, 2025. – Elizabeth Cook\/PA Wire<\/p>\n
The retrial was requested by the CPS after the jury in 2024 could not reach a verdict on whether the pair were guilty of manslaughter, although they were convicted of charges including child cruelty. They lost an appeal against those convictions.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the couple were unanimously found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter. UK media outlets reported that Gordon said from the dock that he would appeal.<\/p>\n
According to PA, Judge Mark Lucraft said at one point that he had \u201cnever\u201d before encountered the \u201csort of attitude\u201d shown towards him by Gordon and Marten, adding that two teenagers who had been in court earlier that day were \u201crather better behaved – and they pleaded guilty to murder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jaswant Narwal, Chief Crown Prosecutor at CPS London, called the trials \u201cchallenging,\u201d saying in a statement after their conviction that \u201cMarten and Gordon have shown little remorse for their actions, using different antics to frustrate and delay court proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n
Det. Insp. Dave Sinclair, who first responded to the calls about the burned-out car that sparked the search for Victoria, called her death \u201ccompletely avoidable\u201d and solely down to her parents\u2019 actions.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just feel really sad. This is such a tragic waste of life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was ample opportunity for them to have sought help, to have addressed the welfare concerns for the baby, to have come forward to the authorities and to have got that help. And potentially there may have been a different outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n