Constance Marten's friends tell how she shunned them with new boyfriend on scene
A friend of mum-of-five Constance Marten who was found guilty of killing her newborn baby when she and partner took her to live "off grid", has spoken about how her pal cut ties with those that loved her.
Aristocrat Marten, 37, who was known to family and friends by the nickname Toots, stopped replying to messages and ghosted her family around the same time as she met her fellow accused Mark Gordon, who she went on to have five children with.
Gordon, 50, and Marten married while travelling in Peru, although their marriage is not recognised in the UK. Marten's friend Noisette Tahoun reached out to her through the Mirror back in January 2023, when Marten was missing with her newborn.
She made an emotional plea for her safe return. Marten and Gordon were eventually arrested and two days later Victoria's decomposing body was found in a Lidl bag on an allotment in the South Downs.
They were both found guilty of perverting the course of justice and concealing the birth of a child during their first trial at the Old Bailey and were then retried, accused of manslaughter by gross negligence of baby Victoria - they were both unanimously convicted.
At the time of the manhunt, Noisette described Marten as a "kind and magnificent" mum and urged her to reach out to her loved ones and hand herself in. She told The Mirror: "Constance is a magnificent person and just awesome, very kind and fun to be around. She's spontaneous and the life of the party. I really wish to know anything about her and how she's doing."
Noisette first met the aristocrat, whose dad Napier Marten was a page to the late Queen, when they worked together at a productions company in Cairo, Egypt.
Constance Marten was spending a year abroad for her degree in Arabic and Middle Eastern studies at the time.
The pair fast became friends with Noisette visiting London in 2012 and staying in touch with her for a few years afterwards. In 2016, when Constance met Mark, she stopped replying to her Noisette's messages and is understood she cut ties with her family and most of her pals.
Noisette said at the time: "She seemed fine when I visited her in the UK, and then she would message me saying we needed to catch up and find the right time.
"But when she got with her recent partner, she started being distant from everyone and not replying to any messages. I spoke to her sister to check if she was okay, but she wasn't hearing back from her either."
Noisette added: "She just needs to stay in touch with everyone who loves her. Regardless of what has happened in her life, she needs to try and stay positive and be around her family in the UK."
Marten had been re-tried at the Old Bailey after she and Gordon decided to go on the run fearing their daughter would be put into care, as their four elder children had been.
The infant's remains were found in an allotment shed inside the supermarket bag, along with a sandwich wrapper and an empty beer can.
The jury heard that the couple kept Victoria's body in a 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, but prosecutors alleged she died weeks later.
Marten and Gordon both denied the manslaughter by gross negligence of their daughter Victoria between January 4 and February 27, last year. But a jury unanimously decided they were guilty of killing the infant. They will be sentenced on September 15.
An early jury also found them guilty of child cruelty, perverting the course of justice and concealing the birth of a child. Marten and Gordon both lost an appeal against those convictions.
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