The face looks familiar and the crime is all too real. However the evil killer mushroom chef in these videos is anything but - and the viral videos have sparked a furious backlash
Erin Patterson, 50, was found guilty of murdering three relatives and attempting to murder a fourth on Monday after she laced their meal with death cap mushrooms.
Patterson's father-in-law and mother-in-law Don and Gail Patterson and Gail's sister Heather Wilkinson died following the lunch at her Leongatha home in south-east Victoria on July 29, 2023.
Heather's husband, Pastor Ian Wilkinson, was the sole survivor of the deadly meal.
The high-profile case drew global attention and developed a cult following online, spawning memes and satirical content.
Now, a TikTok account named Erin.the.chef has attracted widespread attention for its AI-generated videos depicting Patterson in a fictional cooking series.
The account, which uses the tagline, 'Just a Mum who loves making homemade meals for my family,' features a digital recreation of Patterson foraging for mushrooms and preparing the fatal dish.
In one video, the AI version of Patterson can be seen welcoming viewers: 'What's up guys, welcome to my cooking series.
'Today we're making beef Wellington, but first we need to find some special mushrooms.'
She then joked, 'The in-laws are going to love this,' while holding a mushroom.
Another clip showed her in a supermarket asking for a dehydrator 'for death cap mushrooms - I mean, beef,' followed by scenes of mushrooms drying in her kitchen.
'Not long now. If anyone knows a good place to dispose of evidence, let me know,' the AI character said in the fake footage.
The series continues with Patterson handing a dehydrator to a worker at a rubbish tip and cooking the dish while laughing about her 'special ingredient'.
'I'd hate to undercook it and make someone sick,' she quips, referencing trial details that she served her portion on a differently coloured plate.
In another video, the AI version of Patterson could be seen between the aisles of a supermarket asking a staff member what kitchen appliance she recommends for drying 'death cap mushrooms...I mean, beef'.
The video cut to a depiction of Patterson's kitchen, with the mushrooms inside a dehydrator on top of the bench.
'Not long now. If anyone knows of a good place to dispose of evidence let me know,' the AI Patterson said.
In the third episode of the series, the AI Patterson could be seen walking through a rubbish tip and handing a dehydrator to a worker.
Another video showed Patterson cooking the beef Wellington and laughing as she added her 'special ingredient'.
'I better cook this for an hour and I would hate to under cook it and make someone sick,' the AI Patterson said.
'Gotta make sure I don't get mixed up,' she added as she showed the camera a blue plate among red plates.
Her trial heard she served her portion on a differently-coloured plate from her guests.
The videos have sparked mixed reactions. Many viewers condemned the content as insensitive to the victims' families.
'People died. It's really not a joke,' one user commented. 'I laughed, then remembered three people died,' another added.
Others defended the videos as dark humour.
'This is kind of funny, like a twisted joke. I'm laughing so hard,' one person wrote.
'Please do vlogs from her in prison next,' another suggested.
One insisted: 'This is the best account I've ever come across,' while another fan said: 'This is fantastic.'
While some admitted they found the fake videos entertaining, others argued it crossed a line and trivialised a tragic event that devastated multiple families.
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STV News
an hour ago
- STV News
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon convicted over death of their newborn baby
More than 1,000 Metropolitan Police officers searched for Victoria for two days before she was discovered wrapped in a pink sheet and hidden beneath dirt and rubbish in a Lidl bag, ITV News' Cari Davies reports Constance Marten and her partner Mark Gordon have been convicted of the gross negligence manslaughter of their newborn baby. Marten, 38, and Gordon, 51, went on the run with daughter Victoria in early 2023 after their four other children were taken into care. Police had launched a nationwide hunt after their car burst into flames on the motorway near Bolton, Greater Manchester. The couple travelled across England and went off-grid, sleeping in a tent on the South Downs where baby Victoria died. After seven weeks on the run, the defendants were arrested in Brighton, East Sussex. Following a desperate search, police found their baby dead amid rubbish inside a Lidl bag in a disused shed nearby. Victoria's remains were too badly decomposed to establish the cause of death. The prosecution said she died from hypothermia in the cold and damp conditions inside the flimsy tent or was smothered. The defendants claimed their daughter's death was a tragic accident after Marten fell asleep on her. A jury in their retrial found Marten and Gordon unanimously guilty of manslaughter on Monday. In their first trial last year, the defendants were convicted of perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child and child cruelty. CCTV footage of Constance Marten with baby Victoria as she put her under her coat in East Ham, London. / Credit: Metropolitan Police/PA Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford of Scotland Yard, said: 'Today, the justice we have long fought for has been finally been served for baby Victoria. 'The selfish actions of Mark Gordon and Constance Marten resulted in the death of a newborn baby who should have had the rest of her life ahead of her.' The senior officer said Victoria's death was 'completely avoidable' as the defendant had plenty of opportunities to 'do the right thing' and ask for help. In light of the conviction, the family court decision to take Marten's four other children into care was 'shown to be right', he said. When Marten became pregnant for a fifth time, she kept it secret, giving birth in a hired holiday cottage on Christmas Eve 2022. The defendants' attempts to keep baby Victoria under wraps prompted the major police alert after a placenta was found inside their abandoned car near Bolton on January 5 2023. Footage of the burning Peugeot 206 used by Constance Marten and Mark Gordon on the M61. / Credit: Metropolitan Police/PA The defendants fled the scene with Victoria, leaving behind the family cat named Sasha in a box, around £2,000 in cash, 34 'burner' phones and other belongings. They spent hundreds of pounds on taxis to take them from the North West, to Harwich in Essex, East Ham in London and on to Newhaven. Victoria was only briefly glimpsed on CCTV footage in London wearing the same babygrow, later recovered with her body inside the Lidl bag. The prosecution asserted that Victoria was carried under Marten's jacket or in a Lidl bag without adequate clothing, warmth or shelter. After she died, 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. The defendants were arrested after buying supplies in Brighton on February 27 2023, and refused to say where the baby was, with Gordon declaring: 'What's the big deal?' Police interview Constance Marten after her arrest. / Credit: Metropolitan Police/PA More than 1,000 Metropolitan Police officers searched for Victoria for two days before she was discovered in an allotment shed wrapped in a pink sheet and hidden beneath dirt and rubbish in a Lidl bag. In a police interview, Marten said: 'I had her in my jacket and I hadn't slept properly in quite a few days and erm, I fell asleep holding her sitting up and she, when I woke up, she wasn't alive.' Jurors were told Marten had been warned by social workers about the risk of falling asleep with a baby lying on her and that a tent was unsuitable. Both defendants gave evidence in their retrial, but each cut short their testimony, with Marten, an aristocrat, describing the prosecution as 'heartless' and 'diabolical'. Jurors in the defendant's first trial in 2024 were not told about Gordon's violent past, which was only partly revealed in their second trial. 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. Mark Gordon being detained by police on bodycam footage. / Credit: Metropolitan Police/PA Gordon, who moved with his mother from Birmingham to the US at the age of 12, was sentenced to 40 years in jail and was released after 22 years. Jurors in the retrial appeared visibly shaken by the revelations, even though Marten had accidentally blurted out Gordon's rape conviction while giving evidence. In 2017, Gordon was convicted of assaulting two female police officers at a maternity unit in Wales where Marten gave birth to their first child under a fake identity. Jurors were not told that Gordon was also suspected of an incident of domestic violence in 2019, which left Marten with a shattered spleen. Gordon had refused to allow paramedics into their London flat to treat her, even though she was 14 weeks pregnant, it emerged during a legal argument. She spent eight days in hospital, then put her life and that of her unborn child at risk by attempting to discharge herself, with Gordon's support, it was alleged. It was following that incident that the family court decided the couple's other children should be taken into care. Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
South Wales Argus
an hour ago
- South Wales Argus
Fugitive aristocrat and partner guilty over baby's death
Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, went on the run with daughter Victoria in early 2023 after their four other children were taken into care. Police had launched a nationwide hunt after their car burst into flames on the motorway near Bolton, Greater Manchester. The couple travelled across England and went off grid sleeping in a tent on the South Downs where baby Victoria died. The moment Mark Gordon was arrested in the street in Brighton (Met Police/PA) After seven weeks on the run, the defendants were arrested in Brighton, East Sussex. Following a desperate search, police found their baby dead amid rubbish inside a Lidl bag in a disused shed nearby. Victoria's remains were too badly decomposed to establish the cause of death. The prosecution said she died from hypothermia in the cold and damp conditions inside the flimsy tent or was smothered. The defendants claimed their daughter's death was a tragic accident after Marten fell asleep on her. A jury in their retrial found Marten and Gordon unanimously guilty of manslaughter on Monday after 14 hours and 32 minutes of deliberations. In their first trial last year, the defendants were convicted of perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child and child cruelty. Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford of Scotland Yard, said: 'Today, the justice we have long fought for has been finally been served for baby Victoria. CCTV footage of Constance Marten, Mark Gordon and baby Victoria in a German doner kebab shop in East Ham, London, on January 7 2023 (Met Police/PA) 'The selfish actions of Mark Gordon and Constance Marten resulted in the death of a newborn baby who should have had the rest of her life ahead of her.' The senior officer said Victoria's death was 'completely avoidable' as the defendant had plenty of opportunities to 'do the right thing' and ask for help. In light of the conviction, the family court decision to take Marten's four other children into care was 'shown to be right', he said. Samantha Yelland, senior Crown prosecutor for CPS London, told the PA news agency: 'I feel that justice has been done. 'It's been a long road, it's been a lot of work but, you know, no work is too much when anyone's died, but particularly a young child who wasn't able to stick up for herself or fight for herself.' Jurors in the defendant's first trial in 2024 were not told about Gordon's violent past, which was only partly revealed in their second trial. 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. Gordon, who moved with his mother from Birmingham to the US at the age of 12, was sentenced to 40 years in jail and was released after 22 years. Jurors in the retrial appeared visibly shaken by the revelations even though Marten had accidentally blurted out Gordon's rape conviction while giving evidence. Items found with the body of baby Victoria inside a Lidl bag, including the pink sheet she was wrapped in and her teddy bear print babygrow (Met Police/PA) In 2017, Gordon was convicted of assaulting two female police officers at a a maternity unit in Wales where Marten gave birth to their first child under a fake identity. Jurors were not told that Gordon was also suspected of a incident of domestic violence in 2019 which left Marten with a shattered spleen. Gordon had refused to allow paramedics into their London flat to treat her even though she was 14 weeks pregnant, it emerged during legal argument. She spent eight days in hospital then put her life and that of her unborn child at risk by attempting to discharge herself, with Gordon's support, it was alleged. It was following that incident that the family court decided the couple's other children should be taken into care. When Marten became pregnant for a fifth time, she kept it secret, giving birth in a hired holiday cottage on Christmas Eve 2022. The defendants' attempts to keep baby Victoria under wraps prompted the major police alert after a placenta was found inside their abandoned car near Bolton on January 5 2023. The defendants fled the scene with Victoria, leaving behind the family cat named Sasha in a box, around £2,000 in cash, 34 'burner' phones and other belongings. They spent hundreds of pounds on taxis to take them from the North West, to Harwich in Essex, East Ham in London and on to Newhaven. Victoria was only briefly glimpsed on CCTV footage in London wearing the same teddybear motif babygrow later recovered with her body inside the Lidl bag. The prosecution asserted that Victoria was carried under Marten's jacket or in a Lidl bag without adequate clothing, warmth or shelter. After she died, 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. The defendants were arrested after buying supplies in Brighton on February 27 2023, and refused to say where the baby was, with Gordon declaring: 'What's the big deal?' More than a thousand Metropolitan Police officers searched for Victoria for two days before she was discovered in an allotment shed wrapped in a pink sheet and hidden beneath dirt and rubbish in the Lidl bag. In a police interview, Marten said: 'I had her in my jacket and I hadn't slept properly in quite a few days and erm, I fell asleep holding her sitting up and she, when I woke up, she wasn't alive.' Jurors were told Marten had been warned by social workers about the risk of falling asleep with a baby lying on her and that a tent was unsuitable. Both defendants gave evidence in their retrial but each cut short their testimony, with Marten describing the prosecution as 'heartless' and 'diabolical'. Judge Mark Lucraft KC ordered pre-sentence reports and remanded the defendants into custody to be sentenced on September 15.
Sky News
4 hours ago
- Sky News
A nationwide hunt was launched when Constance Marten disappeared with her partner Mark Gordon and their newborn baby. This is the story of how the couple's desperate bid to evade the authorities and keep their daughter Victoria ended in her tragic death.
A nationwide hunt was launched when Constance Marten disappeared with her partner Mark Gordon and their newborn baby. This is the story of how the couple's desperate bid to evade the authorities and keep their daughter Victoria ended in her tragic death. When the car in front of Ken Hudson's van burst into flames, he stopped on the motorway to help. But Mark Gordon and Constance Marten didn't want him to wait for the emergency services to arrive. Their newborn daughter's dark wispy hair poked out of the blanket she was wrapped in against the cold night, and Ken put his hand on her head, wishing her "God bless", before driving away. He didn't know that the family would soon be the focus of a national search, after a placenta wrapped in a towel in the burnt-out car revealed baby Victoria's secret birth, and that he would be one of the last people to see her up close while she was still alive. Prosecutors said the couple were motivated by a desire to keep their daughter after their four other children were taken into care, and had planned to avoid detection by the authorities since Marten fell pregnant. A multi-million pound family trust fund gave her access to money, and they were able to stay on the run for 54 days, living off-grid and sleeping in a tent as they travelled hundreds of miles across the country. When Victoria was found dead inside a Lidl bag in an allotment shed in Brighton, East Sussex, days after their arrest, Ken was left thinking: "What if?" "If I'd have waited for the emergency services and they'd have arrived… somebody would've been there to stop them leaving the scene," he says. "If that would've happened, then maybe the baby would've survived." Gordon, 51, and Marten, 38, were found guilty of child cruelty, concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice last year, and have now been found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence after a retrial. WARNING: This article contains material you may find distressing. ROYAL LINKS Marten, nicknamed Toots, comes from a wealthy family of landowners who have links to the Royal Family; her grandmother was reportedly a playmate of Princess Margaret, while her father, Napier Marten, was a page to the late Queen. She grew up in Crichel House, a Dorset estate, which the family reportedly put on the market for £100m in 2010, before its sale to an American buyer. But giving evidence during her trial, Marten said she "never really had a strong connection" with her family and that although she was financially privileged growing up, "emotionally" she was "not at all". "Obviously I don't want to seem ungrateful for having comfort and nice things and access to finances," she said. "It's great but without familial love… there are more important things." Following her private education, Marten studied Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Leeds, spending a year abroad in Cairo, where she took photographs of the Egyptian revolution. While at university, she accepted a fixed penalty notice for the attempted theft of a T-shirt in what she later told jurors was a "silly prank". She said travelling was her "passion" and that she had "been very blessed", enjoying trips to places like India, Nigeria, Uganda, South America and across Europe. Marten completed a journalism course, including a module on court reporting, according to her LinkedIn profile, and later studied at the East 15 Acting School in Essex. Her online CV says she had a day's internship at the Daily Mail and worked as a senior researcher for Middle Eastern news station, Al Jazeera, including on a documentary about a religious cult in Nigeria. A FAMILY FEUD Marten says she met Gordon in 2014 in a shop that sold incense. She didn't introduce him to her family, saying she had fallen out with them around two years earlier. She said they became good friends and went travelling to Peru, where they married in an unofficial wedding ceremony, and later described Gordon as her "soulmate" to police. 'I had to escape my family' Constance Marten Marten was about to be bought a house in London from the family trust fund before the birth of her first child, but the offer was withdrawn when she decided to leave the capital, the court heard. She claims she was "cut off overnight" while heavily pregnant, telling the jury she and Gordon went to Wales while "trying to flee" her family, who saw her as "an embarrassment". She says she believed they were pursued by private investigators who tampered with vehicles and installed a GPS tracker in a "cat and mouse" game. "Some people who are privileged think they are above the rules," she said. "It is harrowing, you are up against these people who will stop at nothing, who have endless resources and connections." The court heard Marten's mother, Virginie de Selliers, used private investigators to trace her daughter in 2016, while her father used the same firm to approach Gordon the following year. Ms De Selliers also used private investigators to locate Marten and Gordon in 2021 in an operation codenamed "Lynx". "I had to escape my family because [they] are extremely oppressive and bigoted and wouldn't allow me to have children with my husband," Marten said. "They would do anything to erase that child from the family line, which is what they did end up doing." By the time she had her second child, Marten was receiving £2,000 a month from the trust fund and later claimed benefits she wasn't entitled to, the court heard. 'You have made choices in your personal life which have proven challenging' Marten's mother Virginie de Selliers Her monthly allowance increased from £2,500 to £3,400 and she was given almost £50,000 in the months before she disappeared, after requesting money for a car and camera equipment. In an audio appeal made while Marten and her partner were on the run, her father said the family had lived "in great concern". Her mother, who attended the start of her daughter's first trial, said in an open letter: "You have made choices in your personal adult life which have proven to be challenging, however I respect them, I know that you want to keep your precious newborn child at all costs." MARK GORDON'S CRIMINAL PAST Gordon was born in Birmingham before moving to the US with his family, where he carried out a violent sex attack on a woman in Florida when he was just 14 years old. He placed a nylon stocking over his face and broke into his next-door neighbour's house armed with a knife and hedge clippers on 29 April 1989, before raping the victim while she was held captive for four-and-a-half hours. Weeks later, on 21 May, Gordon broke into another neighbour's home, where Patrick Nash lived with his wife and baby son, through a kitchen window. Mr Nash told Sky News he thinks the teenager didn't expect him to be there when his wife woke up to find Gordon, who had "strategically placed" the kitchen knives around the house, at the end of the bed armed with a shovel. "As I was getting out of bed, I was attacked," he said. "As I was attacked, I chased him out of the house. He came in through a kitchen window and went out the same way." Mr Nash, who was left needing more than a dozen stitches to his head after being hit with the shovel, added: "We were both upset. It was very frightful... We didn't sleep well for quite some time." Gordon, then aged 20, was sentenced to 40 years' imprisonment in 1994 after he was convicted of offences including rape, aggravated burglary, false imprisonment and indecent assault over the two attacks. He was released and deported to the UK in 2010 after serving 22 years and he is required to sign the sex offenders' register. In court, Gordon claimed he had suffered "human rights violations" because he had not been supervised in police interviews, and had challenged the convictions while in custody. He said his mother was a hard-working nurse who had two or three houses, adding: "The idea I was underprivileged was not the case." His older sister, Karen Satchell, the only one of seven siblings who went to the US with Gordon, insisted: "He's not a rapist, he was a 14-year-old boy in the wrong place at the wrong time." After spending so much time in prison, he wanted to "live off the land as a naturalist", she said. Karen, who now lives in London, said her "very shy" and "mysterious" brother had never introduced her to Marten or their children, was "an extremely private person" and that "nobody knew where he lived or how he lived". "They didn't want riches or gold, they didn't care about black or white. They didn't care about anything but their love when they wanted to have kids," she told Sky News. Gordon also pleaded guilty to assaulting two police officers who had been called to a maternity ward in Wales in 2017 around the time Marten gave birth to their first child, and was jailed for around 20 weeks. A woman who rented a property to the couple in Wales said they would pay the rent from a carrier bag full of cash. 'I had quite a few fights with Mark' The couple's former landlady She said she was worried about their baby because the parents seemed to be "manic". "I could tell she was educated. I knew she was kind. She fell in love with this chap," she told Sky News. "He wasn't a very nice man. She kept telling me how he was lovely. "I had quite a few fights with Mark. He used to phone me at 11pm saying he wanted me to follow a religion with him," the landlady added. Another property manager described to Sky News how he believed Gordon was meditating in the centre of the room surrounded by incense sticks in the gaps in the wooden floor, after finding burn marks in the flat. And a landlord who rented the couple a property in London said they left the room "like a junkyard" littered with "piles of rubbish", food waste and old clothes, as well as damaged walls. TAKEN INTO CARE The couple had four children together from 2017, before Marten became pregnant with Victoria in 2022. All four children were made subject to care and placement orders in January 2022 and Marten told the jury they had been "stolen by the state". There was an alleged incident of domestic violence in 2019 when Marten suffered a spleen injury after Gordon was accused of pushing her out of a window. A family court judge said there was a "risk of harm to the children by being exposed to physical violence between the parents". 'Mummy and daddy cancelled again' One of Marten and Gordon's children The couple were said to have "interacted well" with their children during supervised contact sessions, but their attendance was "inconsistent". One child was described as "inconsolable" when the parents failed to turn up at the contact centre, telling staff: "Mummy and daddy cancelled again." Prosecutors said that as soon as Marten realised she was pregnant with her fifth child, she and Gordon started planning to "go dark" so they could conceal the birth from the authorities and keep the baby. Gordon's sister, Karen, believes "it was a simple situation of just a couple trying to live and get away" and said: "We cannot judge their mindset or where their mental health went at that point." Victoria is believed to have been born in December 2022 before her parents went on the run with her. Here's how the hunt for the couple and their baby unfolded. DECEMBER 2022 Marten and Gordon book into the Woodcutter Cottage in Northumberland on 20 December, reserving it for six nights. Marten told police she gave birth in the holiday home on Christmas Eve - a claim disputed by the prosecution. The owners find the house in a "disgusting state" on 28 December, with urine stains on the bathroom floor, red wine on the quilt and cat litter strewn around. The same day, the couple's Suzuki car breaks down on the M18 near Doncaster. A recovery driver who takes them to a nearby Sainsbury's did not see or hear a baby. Prosecutors say the baby was likely born after 28 December, but they could not say exactly where or when the birth took place. At some point between 28 December and 4 January, Marten and Gordon travel across the Pennines. They check into the Ibis hotel at the Lymm Services in Cheshire in the early hours of 4 January before moving to the AC Hotel in Salford, Greater Manchester. 5 JANUARY 2023 The couple are travelling in a Peugeot 206 car, which catches fire on the M61 in Greater Manchester. It is not clear how, when or where they got the car. Ken Hudson was driving a van behind them and called the emergency services from the hard shoulder, where he filmed the car alight and billowing smoke. Ken watched Gordon open the boot of the car before "frantically" getting things out and throwing them over the crash barrier. After noticing Marten was carrying a baby, he asked if the infant was okay, to which Marten replied: "She's fine." "[I was] cut up because I believe that if I stayed with the vehicle, the baby may be still alive," he said. Marten's passport and a placenta wrapped in a towel were discarded in the wreckage. Abandoned items found nearby included a bible, a bag of more than 30 mobile phones, five used nappies and a cat in a pet carrier. 5 JANUARY At around 6.30pm, the couple walk from the burning car towards Anchor Lane bridge, which links the Highfield and Little Hulton areas. They get a lift to a Morrisons supermarket in Bolton, with the driver saying the baby was wrapped in a blanket. They are then seen on CCTV at Bolton Interchange bus station, with the baby apparently under Marten's coat. From there, they take a 35-mile taxi to Liverpool for about £80. In Liverpool, they flag down taxi driver Ali Yaryar and ask to go to Harwich in Essex, 270 miles away, paying him £400. Yaryar says he saw a baby inside Marten's jacket dressed only in a nappy. He offered a car seat but she declined, saying the baby was "too small". After the burning car is discovered with the placenta inside, Greater Manchester Police launches a missing persons case. 6 JANUARY The couple check into a Premier Inn hotel in Harwich at around 3am, using the false surname of Thomas, and pay in cash. Receptionist Rae Robson says Marten seemed stressed when she and Gordon were told to leave the next day as they didn't have proof of identity. When staff entered the vacated room, it smelled like "rotten flesh" or an "infected piercing", the receptionist said. That evening, the couple move to the Fryatt Hotel near Harwich International Port, again paying in cash. They check out the next morning just before 7am and Marten is seen on CCTV dressed in a red shawl at the port around 9am. A member of the public, Dale Gosling, confronts the couple near the port after watching a TV news report about their disappearance, but they deny being the missing couple. It was a "freezing" morning and the baby was dressed in a white onesie and wrapped inside Marten's coat in a towel or blanket, he said. The baby gave the kind of cry he "could not walk away from", he said, and he offered them a lift to the hospital or a cup of tea at his house. "I recall a child screaming to the point where I had to physically turn around and involve myself with people because the child was distressed," Mr Gosling said. Marten looked "scared" and "like a woman who had just given birth", he said, and seemed more amenable to the idea, but Gordon insisted they were going to London to see friends or family. 7 JANUARY From Harwich, they get a taxi to Colchester for £30 on 7 January. Cab driver Colette Franklin described how Gordon "slid down his seat" when a police car came towards them. They take another taxi later that morning from Colchester to High Street North in East Ham, east London, where CCTV shows Marten appearing to cradle the child beneath her unzipped jacket. Gordon buys a buggy in Argos while Marten waits at a table in a German doner kebab shop. With Victoria in the buggy, they take a taxi from East Ham to Whitechapel. Gordon goes to another Argos store, buying a two-person tent and camping bedding, including a children's unicorn sleeping bag. Shortly after midnight, they get in a taxi in east London carrying Argos bags and a Lidl bag. They are dropped off in Green Lanes in Haringey, north London - although they had wanted to go seven miles further, to the Enfield Tesco Extra. Taxi driver Abdirisakh Mohamud said he became "suspicious" and "uncomfortable" and decided to end the journey early. "The more I thought about it, the more concerned I felt about the baby," he added. 8 JANUARY They take another £475 taxi from Allison Road, Haringey, to Newhaven ferry port in East Sussex on 8 January, having initially asked to be taken to Portsmouth. Taxi driver Hasan Guzel described hearing "meowing" noises during the journey and at first thought they came from a pet. "I could see it was a baby, I could see the noise was coming from a baby. I thought, why didn't she tell me about this, it's been nearly four hours we have been travelling," he said. Mr Guzel said when he dropped them in Newhaven just before 5am, it was cold and dark and he was "concerned as to what they were going to do next". Marten bought snacks and petrol with cash from a Texaco petrol station in the early hours of 9 January. Three days after their first visit to the Texaco petrol station, Marten returns on 12 January and buys Haribo sweets, Mini Cheddars, matches, bottles of water and a filled glass bottle of petrol, paying in cash. The trail then goes cold until sightings in Brighton almost a month later. Marten has claimed that during this time before the sightings, the couple took multiple trips to Brighton to buy food, recounting one memory of the pair eating food on the beach. On 31 January, a £10,000 reward is offered by the Metropolitan Police for information leading to the family being found safe. 27 FEBRUARY - ARREST There are several sightings of Marten and Gordon before they are arrested on 27 February. Gordon is seen on 16 February coming out of a blue tent pitched in woodland on the South Downs. A witness said it was about -2C and "not camping weather". The couple are later seen looking "dishevelled, a bit dirty" near Hollingbury Golf Course, with Marten pushing a buggy. Marten and Gordon are then seen on Coldean Lane, Brighton, on 18 February, with a witness saying he thought there was a child under Marten's coat. There is another sighting of the couple on 19 February when a blue tent was spotted near Stony Mere Way in Stanmer Park, Brighton. A witness noticed a "mum with baby" and the child was "very pale". The baby was in a sling and her head was "wobbling" and "floppy", the witness said. "I do think that baby had died. It was dead." 'Where's your child?' Police Sergeant Robert Button The couple are seen on CCTV trying and failing to break into Hollingbury Golf Course on 20 February and "scavenging for food from the bins". On 27 February, Marten and Gordon are spotted by a member of the public - who recognised them from media reports - at Mulberrys convenience store on Hollingbury Place in Brighton, where they are buying food and using the cash point. Just after 9.30pm, the witness calls 999 and six minutes later, police arrive. By that time, the pair were on neighbouring Stanmer Villas, where they were detained. An officer's bodycam footage shows Marten being told she is under arrest for child neglect, to which she replied: "For doing what?" She was then asked by officers: "Where's your child? Where's your child? Sorry, where is your child, we need to know?" to which she did not respond. A dog handler then asks her: "Tell me now because I'm going to send the dog into the wood to try and find someone so you tell me where it is now." Marten was then further arrested for concealment of the birth of a child, which she is heard saying was "not an arrestable offence", adding: "You can't arrest someone for hiding a pregnancy." 'I'm not going to make you a sandwich' PC Matthew Colburn PC Matthew Colburn helped handcuff Gordon and asked repeatedly where the child was and whether she was alive, as he continued to demand food and drink. He was given ginger beer, chicken and crisps, before asking for mayonnaise, saying he did not want to talk and asked why finding the baby was the "bigger deal". "I'm not going to make you a sandwich, we've got a child to find," PC Colburn was heard replying on body-worn video. "We need to potentially save a life. That's the number one priority. It may not be your priority, but it's everyone else's priority." The next day, the couple are further arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. 1 MARCH - BODY FOUND Police launch a large-scale search for the missing newborn, using a helicopter, sniffer dogs, thermal imaging cameras, and drones. More than 200 officers search an area of 90 square miles, including the golf course, Wild Park Local Nature Reserve and allotments. They scour woodland and ponds and search every shed at the Roedale Valley Allotments near where the couple were arrested, forcing entry to outbuildings where necessary. Police find the remains of the baby in a disused allotment shed on 1 March. Later, her name is revealed to be Victoria. When the body was found, it was not initially possible to determine the baby's gender, and police said the child may have been dead for "several weeks". The dead child was discovered stuffed inside a Lidl carrier bag among rubbish including a Budweiser beer can, Coke cans, several pages of The Sun newspaper and an egg sandwich package. At the post-mortem examination, the cause of death was "unascertained". Dr Nat Cary told the court Victoria was wearing just a nappy and had signs of "significant decomposition" when he examined her. Asked to consider possible reasons for her death, he raised possible causes - including cold, co-sleeping or breathing being obstructed - but said "none of that is provable". The court heard from a paediatric consultant that Victoria could have been two, four or six weeks old at the time of death. HOW DID VICTORIA DIE? "I have never had a case before where I don't know the date the child was born and the date the child died, combined with an unascertained cause of death," says senior crown prosecutor Samantha Yelland. Pathologists found no active cause of death - she hadn't been assaulted - but said Victoria didn't die of natural causes. She was alleged to have been inadequately clothed in a babygrow, while Marten got wet as she carried her daughter underneath her coat. Investigators were able to provide temperatures in the specific area where they were said to be living and prosecutors said the baby died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping in a "flimsy" tent. Ms Yelland said Marten and Gordon "love their children" but "think about themselves and what they want" over the safety of their kids. She said they "should have known that that was a serious risk of death as a result of their actions, but they just thought that what they were doing was better". Both trials were hampered by disruption and delays and while giving evidence the second time, Marten dramatically revealed Gordon's "violent rape conviction", which the jury were not supposed to be told about. She then parted with her 15th barrister, but was still represented by junior counsel, while Gordon decided to represent himself, questioning his partner in an extraordinary courtroom cross-examination. Gordon described Victoria's death as a "tragic incident" and said he and his partner had been "hounded" and "traumatised" after losing four children to the care system. "I say the baby passed due to unintended circumstances," he said. "I say the parents had a difficult time and there is an aspect of mental challenge going on here." 'We did everything we could to protect her' Constance Marten Weeping in the witness box, Gordon said they had been treated like "monsters" and dragged through mud like "scum" over what happened. Marten said she awoke to find Victoria was dead on 9 January after their first night sleeping in a tent, which was intended to be a "pit stop" to avoid "prying eyes" for a day or two before renting a cottage or travelling abroad. She said Victoria died after she fell asleep over her, telling the jury she "blacked out" and was "flopped forward" with her head on floor. Marten wept as she said she would "turn back time" if she knew her daughter, their "number one priority" was in danger but "we did everything we could to protect her." Marten said she has found Victoria's death "very difficult to live with" but that it "wasn't due to neglect in any way". "If I had a crystal ball and I could see into the future what would happen to Victoria because of my exhaustion then of course I would have preferred to have made different choices, but we did what we could in the moment to keep her with her parents and to protect her," she said. Retired social worker Andrew Reece believes social services and other agencies did everything they could, but Marten and Gordon had the ways and means of evading professionals. "This couple were hell-bent on evading everyone concerned because they didn't want their child to be removed," he says. "It's extremely difficult as a social worker in those circumstances." CREDITS: Reporting: Henry Vaughan, home affairs reporter, Josephine Franks, reporter, Ashna Hurynag, news correspondent, Luke Engelen, producer, Victoria Bird, field news editor, and Eve Bennett, producer Digital production: Henry Vaughan, home affairs reporter, and Josephine Franks, reporter Data and forensics: Natasha Muktarsingh, assistant editor Design: Taylor Stuart, designer Pictures: Press Association, Metropolitan Police, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Facebook Editing: David Mercer, assistant editor Top Built with Shorthand
