Latest news with #childcruelty
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Daily Mail
How Constance Marten and Mark Gordon employed 'covert tactics' like an 'organised crime gang' to evade police for 53 days
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon used covert tactics 'consistent with an organised crime group' to stay ahead of a nationwide manhunt lasting 53 days, claim police officers involved in their case. Their flight from justice began on a wet and freezing Thursday night in January 2023, when firefighters found what they believed was a body part inside a burning car on the M61 near Bolton. Motorists had seen a man frantically pulling belongings from the blaze while a woman stood beside him, clutching a tiny baby. They were quickly identified as Constance Marten, then 35, a former aristocrat with access to a large trust fund, and Mark Gordon, 48, a convicted sex offender who had served 20 years in a US prison. The baby was Victoria - a child they had kept hidden from authorities. Detective Inspector Dave Sinclair was called to the scene, he told the Sunday Times: 'With very scant detail we were able to build up quite an informed picture in a relatively short time. But they had the advantage of time.' The couple's 53-day disappearance would end in tragedy with the discovery of baby Victoria's body in a plastic bag beneath a pile of clutter. Last week, following a retrial, the pair were convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence, having already been found guilty of perverting the course of justice, child cruelty, and concealing the birth of a child. On January 5 2023 Greater Manchester Police launched a missing persons search after finding a placenta in the couple's burnt-out car on a motorway near Bolton The 'body part' turned out to be a placenta wrapped in a bloodstained towel, it was discovered in the car alongside Marten's passport, £2,000 in cash, a live cat in a box, and 34 phones and Sim cards. Wet paperwork recovered from the vehicle revealed the couple's names for the first time, despite the car being falsely registered. Officers immediately set about combing the area with sniffer dogs, but the couple were already gone - hitching a lift into Bolton, then taking two taxis to confuse the authorities and get across the country. They paid in cash for both, travelling first to Liverpool, then 270 miles southeast to Essex. One driver later told police he saw Marten breastfeeding the baby under her coat. Unable to deploy a helicopter due to high winds, Sinclair assembled every available detective in the force and began a round-the-clock operation. However, thanks to Marten's privileged background, the pair were well prepared. Detectives believe she withdrew more than £25,000 from her trust fund to support their plan to go off-grid and ultimately flee abroad. By the time the investigation was handed over to Essex Police, the couple were already several days into their escape. Detective Chief Inspector Rob Huddleston immediately declared a critical incident as Harwich, where the couple had been sighted, is a port town so the police were concerned they would try to get on a boat to Europe. 'We knew that she'd recently given birth. It was [a case of] pulling out all the stops, really, so we could ensure that little child was all right,' he said. Huddleston's team began searching every hotel and B&B in Harwich and nearby Colchester, before they soon figured out that the couple were moving between the two towns, in an attempt to mislead the police. From Colchester, they took a taxi to East Ham in east London, then another cab took them to Whitechapel, where they bought camping gear, before continuing to north London. Then, in the early hours of their fourth day on the run, they travelled to the south coast. They paid £470 in cash to reach Newhaven, East Sussex. During the journey, the taxi driver said he heard a sound 'like a cat meowing' from under Marten's coat - he hadn't realised it was a baby until four hours into the trip. From here, the couple disappeared into the wilderness of the South Downs, camping in freezing, stormy conditions. Marten later described how they survived by collecting rainwater from a nearby farm and using baby wipes to clean themselves. Victoria slept between the two of them in a 'thing made out of sleeping bags'. In court Marten defended their actions saying: 'Jesus survived in a barn, didn't he? There are societies like Bedouins … They walk through cold deserts with children and they survive.' But somewhere between January 8 and 9, baby Victoria died. According to Marten's barrister Francis FitzGibbon KC, she 'fell asleep with her baby after breastfeeding' and the death was a 'tragic accident', while Gordon's lawyer, John Femi-Ola KC, argued that 'co-sleeping' was 'not a crime'. Prosecutors argued the baby likely died from smothering or hypothermia and that the death was 'entirely avoidable'. Despite this, the couple continued to hide - moving under the cover of night, avoiding phones and bank cards, and only using cash. In one sighting at a Texaco garage on January 12, Marten was seen filling a bottle with petrol. She later told police it was intended to cremate the body, but she changed her mind. For the next 40 nights, they were seen only by dog walkers - always in remote areas near the Seven Sisters cliffs. The Metropolitan Police eventually took over the investigation: 'Most suspects can't live off-grid. They don't have the financial capability [or] the practical capacity,' said Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford. 'This couple were displaying the same level of covert tactics that we would expect from an organised crime group.' The National Crime Agency joined the hunt, looking into possible smuggling routes, cash transactions, and known associates. 'All the skills and tactics that we would use for major crime, for terrorism, were considered and, where appropriate, employed,' said NCA adviser Noel McHugh. Still, the couple stayed hidden. On day 46, they were spotted in Stanmer Park, Brighton. One woman, who would later call the police, said Victoria's head was 'wobbling' and her skin 'very, very pale … I do think that baby died. It was dead.' Finally, on February 27 - day 54 - Marten made three cash withdrawals at a Brighton shopping centre. Gordon, using a stick and with his foot wrapped in a plastic bag, accompanied her. When police moved in, within six minutes of learning about the transaction, Gordon reportedly said: 'What's the big deal?' Marten gave a false name and asked: 'Why am I under arrest anyway? For doing what? … You can't arrest someone for hiding a pregnancy.' Despite repeated questioning, neither would reveal what had happened to the baby. In freezing rain, more than 100 square miles of the South Downs were searched. Drones, helicopters, quad bikes and sniffer dogs were all deployed. While officers searched sheds, ditches and dense woodland. 'People were refusing to go home at the end of their shift,' said Chief Superintendent James Collis of Sussex Police. On March 1, a breakthrough — a disused shed at Lower Roedale allotments. Inside, a Lidl carrier bag hidden under clutter was baby Victoria. PC Allen Ralph said he first saw the infant's head - 'it looked like a 'doll' - and then her decomposed leg. Victoria had been dead for weeks. Despite attempts by Marten to blame others, including her family, the media, and even the police, the jury unanimously found that she and Gordon were responsible for their daughter's death. 'This was a self-absorbed relationship between two selfish and arrogant individuals,' said prosecutor Tom Little KC. 'Caught in the middle of that toxic relationship was a baby that was manifestly not being cared for properly.' 'In her very short life,' he added, 'baby Victoria did not stand a chance.' Marten and Gordon, now 38 and 51, will be sentenced by Judge Mark Lucraft KC on September 15.
Sky News
15-07-2025
- Sky News
Ethan Ives-Griffiths: Grandparents of two-year-old boy found guilty of his murder
The grandparents of a two-year-old boy have been found guilty of his murder. Ethan Ives-Griffiths was dangerously dehydrated, severely underweight and had 40 visible bruises or marks when he collapsed with a catastrophic head injury at his grandparents' home in Flintshire, North Wales, on 14 August 2021. Michael Ives, 47, and Kerry Ives, 46, were convicted of his murder and of cruelty to a child under 16. Ethan's mother, Shannon Ives, 28, who had been staying with her son at her parents' home, was found guilty of causing or allowing his death and of child cruelty. During the trial at Mold Crown Court, jurors were shown CCTV from the family home which showed Michael Ives carrying his grandson by the top of his arm and appearing to punch him after putting him into a car seat. Caroline Rees KC, prosecuting, described the way Michael Ives carried his grandson "as though Ethan was just a bag of rubbish to be slung out". The court heard the youngster had been placed on the child protection register, requiring him to be seen every 10 days. However, when Shannon Ives last saw her social worker, on 5 August 2021, she spoke to him on the doorstep and told him Ethan was having a nap. No one answered the door when social worker Michael Cornish went to visit in the days before Ethan's death and a scheduled appointment with a health visitor on 13 August was cancelled. Shannon Ives was said to have fled domestic violence from her home in Mold in June that year. Michael Ives told the jury his daughter was "quick-tempered" and would slap Ethan a couple of times a day, but Shannon Ives claimed her parents were "horrible" and abused her as a child. Please refresh the page for the latest version.
The Sun
14-07-2025
- The Sun
I was raped at knifepoint by Constance Marten's lover when he was 14 – words after trial prove he deserves death penalty
A RAPE victim of Constance Marten's lover branded him a 'monster' after the couple were convicted of killing their newborn baby. The woman, aged 30 at the time of the assault in 1989, told how Mark Gordon 'took everything from me' and 'deserves the death penalty'. 11 11 She described the rapist and his aristocrat partner Marten, 38, as 'two monsters who found each other'. It comes after Gordon, 51, and Marten were yesterday convicted of gross negligence manslaughter in a chaotic retrial, after the decomposed body of their daughter Victoria was found in a shopping bag in March 2023 following a seven-week manhunt. They were trying to evade authorities after social services had taken their other four children into care. Marten and Gordon had previously been convicted of perverting the course of justice and concealment of a baby's birth at their first trial last year, but it can now be reported they had also been found guilty of child cruelty. The retrial was ordered after jurors in their first failed to reach a decision on manslaughter. The two lengthy hearings are estimated to have cost taxpayers more than £10million after the pair's attempts to 'sabotage' and 'derail' proceedings. When they were found guilty at the Old Bailey yesterday, Gordon angrily shouted: 'I'm not surprised by the verdict. It was faulty, it was unlawful.' Judge Mark Lucraft KC slammed the pair for being worse behaved than teenage murderers. 'You're gonna die' Marten is the daughter of a former page boy to Queen Elizabeth II, and is said to have had a troubled upbringing, which included spending months in an abusive cult in Nigeria. Harrowing moment cop find remains of Constance Marten's baby Victoria stuffed in Lidl bag filled with rubbish Meanwhile, Gordon moved to the US from Birmingham with his nurse mother and siblings when he was 12. Within two years he had carried out the brutal knifepoint rape of a neighbour in Miami. Gordon put the woman through a four-and-half-hour ordeal while her two children were at home, running a knife up and down her body. A court heard he callously told her: 'I'll say goodbye to your children for you because today you're gonna die.' He also threatened to kill the victim's dog after it began to bark and scratch at the door. The woman, now 66, told The Sun: 'He took everything from me. 'We lost our house, our security and our friends. I couldn't stay at the house after what happened there. 'We lost everything. I never feel safe, I don't know what it's like to feel safe and this case in the UK hasn't helped.' Gordon eventually allowed her to leave and she ran with her children to neighbours, who called police. But it was only after Gordon attacked another neighbour with a shovel less than a month later that he was caught and brought to justice. Describing how the ordeal continues to affect her family now, the victim said: 'My daughter still lives with it. She's scared all the time and feels like she should have protected me. 'I kept telling the kids to go get their breakfast and that everything was OK. I told them that I had a headache and I was sleeping late. "My daughter says she knew something was wrong and blames herself. I think they both do. My son won't speak about it, he never has. Not even to me.' Due to the gravity of his crimes, Florida's judicial system treated Gordon as an adult. He pleaded not guilty to armed sexual battery, aggravated battery, armed kidnapping and burglary with a deadly weapon. 11 11 11 After a jury found Gordon guilty in 1994, he was jailed for 40 years, but served just over half his sentence before being deported to the UK. He is still on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Sexual Offenders and Predators registry. The victim said that the judge who dealt with the case was shocked at how much thought and preparation had gone into the attack. She said: 'One day the judge walked him back to the cells and Gordon told him that the only mistake he made was that he should have killed me and then he wouldn't be there. 'The judge said Mark was the most dangerous individual he had seen during his 25 years on the bench.' The victim had campaigned for Gordon to be kept behind bars. She said: 'I didn't want him to hurt anyone else. I believe he deserves the death penalty. 'But he's not the only one to blame for what happened to baby Victoria. 'Constance was her mum, she should have protected her baby. 'Personally, I think they are two monsters who found each other.' Violent rapist Marten met Gordon by chance in a North London incense shop in 2014 and they had a marriage ceremony in Peru two years later. She soon cut ties with her family. It was not until he assaulted two police officers in a hospital in Wales after Marten gave birth to their first child that she learned he was a violent rapist considered at 'high risk' of re-offending. For legal reasons, the jury at the first trial was not told about Gordon's rape conviction. But Marten disclosed the details while giving evidence at the retrial in a bid to derail the proceedings. Jurors appeared visibly shaken by the revelations. They were also not told that Gordon was suspected of an incident of domestic violence in November 2019, which left Marten with a shattered spleen. Gordon had refused to allow paramedics into their London flat to treat his partner 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, it was alleged. It was following that incident that a Family Court judge 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 to Victoria in a hired cottage in Northumberland over Christmas 2022. When police found a placenta, passport and 34 burner phones inside their abandoned car near Bolton on January 5, 2023, it prompted a high-risk missing persons alert. The couple then 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. CONSTANCE MARTEN grew up in one of England's finest stately homes, was a former Tatler 'It Girl' and hails from landed gentry whose family had close links to the royals. Marten had an idyllic early childhood growing up with her three younger siblings at Grade II listed Crichel House, set on a 5,000-acre estate near Wimborne, Dorset. But two key events left her traumatised and vulnerable before she fell for Gordon. When Marten was nine, her father Napier, a former page boy to the Queen, left his wife Virginie de Selliers and children to become a nomadic hippie travelling the globe. The family estate passed on to oldest son Maximillian, who sold the house and part of the estate to an American hedge fund owner for £34million in 2013, leaving Marten devastated. During the trial, she broke down as she gave evidence about a 'traumatic childhood event' and the sale of Crichel House. The second disturbing experience came when Marten was 19 and she attended a Nigerian Christian sect in Lagos with her religious mother. She and other white people at the sect's compound were humiliated by the guru, televangelist Temitope Balogun 'TB' Joshua. They were forced to eat his leftovers and call him 'Daddy'. After Marten returned to the UK, she attended Leeds University. Friends remember her as a vivacious, talented and charismatic globe-trotting party girl who loved festivals such as Burning Man. In 2008, aged 22, she appeared on Tatler magazine's Babe Of The Month page. She spent her summer holidays in 2010 working for a film production company in Cairo. One colleague described her as being 'very decent, nice and friendly' and having 'great potential' but said Constance sometimes chose the 'wrong' type of man, adding: 'She was somehow gullible.' Constance graduated in June 2012 and moved to London but struggled to establish herself in any long-term jobs. Then she met Gordon while studying at East 15 Acting School and dropped out to be with him. At one point, the pair tried to rent flats in Llanelli, North Wales. Landlady Guiseppine Allegri said of Gordon: 'He was very possessive and controlling of Marten. It was him who spoke all the time. I told her to go back to her family. I couldn't see why she was with him. He was so creepy. But she thought Mark was the best thing. 'He was very domineering. He was the boss. There was never a smile on him, never an honest smile. He had an angry smile. 'He would say to me, 'Come and join me. Join me in my cult. You will find peace'.' Victoria was only briefly glimpsed on CCTV footage in London wearing the same teddy bear motif babygrow later recovered with her body inside a Lidl bag. The couple were later spotted staying in a blue tent on the South Downs. The prosecution asserted that Victoria had been carried under Marten's jacket or in the bag. After she died, Marten and Gordon 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. They were arrested in Brighton on February 27, 2023, but refused to say where their baby was. 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 housing. Victoria was found dead in the Lidl bag in a disused shed, in an allotment, on March 1, 2023. Her body was so badly decomposed no pathologist has been able to ascertain her cause of death. Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford said yesterday the couple's 'selfish actions resulted in the death of a baby who should have had the rest of her life ahead of her'. 11 11 11 11 WORST DEFENDANTS JUDGE Mark Lucraft KC described Constance Marten and Mark Gordon as the worst-behaved defendants in his 13 years on the bench. The pair wasted millions of pounds in failed attempts to derail justice for the death of their baby daughter. Their two trials ran to 42 weeks of court time at a cost of £10million – and their antics are thought to have doubled the length of the hearings. Judge Lucraft could not contain his frustration as he repeatedly accused the couple of trying to sabotage proceedings. Marten had tried to collapse the trial by deliberately disclosing in the witness box that Gordon was a convicted rapist. But the judge allowed the details of the case to go before the jury. The couple were also rude to dock officers, would talk through proceedings, feign illness and refused to attend court. Gordon fired his barristers during the second trial and went on to represent himself, leaving the judge struggling to control his long rants from the dock. Marten went through 15 different barristers and sacked her lead barrister in the middle of both trials. In a final insult to the court, the pair refused to stand as the jury delivered its guilty verdict.
National Post
14-07-2025
- National Post
California mom charged after one-year-old dies from being left in hot car while she got lip injections
A California mother has been charged with manslaughter and child cruelty after her infant son died from allegedly being left inside a car on a 100-plus degree day while she was getting lip filler injections at a medical spa in late June. Article content The Bakersfield Police Department alleges that Maya Hernanendez, 20, knew when she walked away from her vehicle that leaving one-year-old Amillio Guiterrez and his two-year-old brother was 'irresponsible,' according to documents filed in Kern County Superior Court and obtained by National Post. Article content Article content Article content 'But she intentionally left them in the vehicle regardless, placing the value of her appearance over the value of the safety and well-being of her children,' Det. Kyle McNabb wrote in his report. Article content Article content According to police, Hernandez had contacted the spa earlier on June 29 to ask if her children could accompany her and was told they could, so long as they stayed in the waiting room of the medical facility. A spa nurse allegedly later told police they were not aware that the children were waiting in the vehicle. Article content Figuring her appointment could go long, police say Hernandez told them that upon arriving around 2 p.m., she decided to leave the boys strapped into their car seats, with snacks and milk, inside the running car with the air conditioning on while they watched shows on her phone. Article content '(Hernandez) stated she was certain that her car would stay on with the air conditioning running the whole time she was gone, because she had been in her car for extended periods of time before and had even slept in her car,' McNabb wrote. Article content Article content However, police later learned that her vehicle, a 2022 Toyota Corolla Hybrid, automatically shuts off after one hour if left in park. Article content Article content Hernandez said she returned to her vehicle at approximately 4:30 p.m. and found Amillio red in the face and then appearing to suffer a seizure with 'foaming at the mouth and shaking.' The other boy was faring better, but his hair was still 'soaking wet' with sweat. She sought assistance from spa staff and called 911. Article content Both were transported to hospital where staff worked on Amillio for 40 minutes before pronouncing him dead. A doctor interviewed by police said the infant's body temperature was recorded at 107.2 degrees. Article content According to historical weather data, the peak temperature at that time of day was 101 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius). In his report, McNabb noted that the internal temperature of a car can climb to 143°F (62°C) in just one hour of 100-degree weather.
Daily Mail
14-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Constance Marten's crocodile tears: Moment killer aristocrat 'breaks down' as she is told her baby has been found dead is revealed - as she and Mark Gordon are found guilty of newborn Victoria's manslaughter
Newly released footage shows runaway aristocrat Constance Marten breaking down in crocodile tears as she is told by police that her baby is dead. In an extraordinary case which gripped the country, Marten and her partner Mark Gordon went on the run with their daughter in a 'desperately selfish' bid to prevent her being taken into care after their four previous children were removed by social workers, who feared they would come to harm. The baby, Victoria, died in the flimsy freezing tent, Marten, 38, and Gordon, 50, were camping in on the South Downs in the freezing cold. After her death, the couple dumped their daughter in a soiled nappy inside a Lidl bag for life. The new footage shows the moment a police detective breaks the news to Marten that her daughter has been found dead. The officer says 'Constance, I can tell you, the baby's not alive' before then asking: 'Is it your baby?' To which Marten responds 'Yes, it is.' The duo shook their heads in the dock of the Old Bailey as they were found guilty of manslaughter today. Moments after being convicted, Gordon angrily shouted from the dock: 'I'm not surprised by the verdict. It was faulty, it was unlawful. This is not over, it has just begun.' Marten yelled, 'It's a scam', before walking out of the court in fury. It can now be revealed, following their retrial, that the pair have already been convicted at an earlier trial of child cruelty, concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice. Scotland Yard launched a nationwide manhunt, spending more than £1.2million chasing the couple around the country after discovering a placenta in their car when the vehicle was ablaze on a motorway in Greater Manchester on January 5, 2023. More than 100 officers pursued the couple as they fled in taxis, travelling hundreds of miles across the country from Bolton to Liverpool, then to Harwich in Essex, and on to East London before finally resorting to a freezing tent. Five police forces joined the hunt, devoting 1,000 officer hours at a cost of £500,000 just to find the child's body after the pair refused to cooperate when they were arrested near Brighton after nearly two months on the run. Police were shocked to discover the millionaire aristocrat had hidden her child's body beneath an empty beer can and discarded sandwich packaging in a disused shed. Following two trials, costing taxpayers an estimated £1.6million, it can now be revealed that: Gordon is a 'sociopathic' rapist whose sadistic crimes were compared to the American serial killer Ted Bundy. A national safeguarding panel is now looking at the landmark case as police have called for new laws to protect unborn children; The couple were granted legal aid for their defence, hiring 19 lawyers to defend them at an estimated cost of £600,000 - yet she is a trust fund heiress worth £2.4million; Gordon attempted to avoid trial, claiming he was more notorious than Wayne Couzens, the Scotland Yard police firearms officer who murdered Sarah Everard. Marten's father was a page to the late Queen and her grandmother was a playmate of Princess Margaret, but her lover's background could not be more different. Experts have described Gordon, 50, as a sociopathic sex offender considered so dangerous that experts compared his sadistic crimes to the American serial killer Ted Bundy or Australian-American serial killer Christopher Wilder. Hooked on violent pornography, Gordon was just 14 when he raped a woman at knifepoint in 1989 after breaking into her home armed with knives and hedge clippers, telling her: 'Don't scream or I'll kill your children.' Over the next four and half hours, the teenage rapist tormented his victim, telling her she was going to die as he ran the blade down her body, holding it to her throat and heart saying: 'All I have to do is push and you are dead.' The mother recalled: 'I had no hope. I was told to say goodbye to my children because this was the day I was going to die. 'When I thought he might be going to leave, he said 'No, your nightmare isn't over yet'.' Franklin Nooe (corr), treatment director of a sex assault clinic who counselled Gordon's first victim, described Gordon as a sociopath in the same category as Ted Bundy: 'That's the 5 per cent of the rapists, that's your Ted Bundys, your Wilders that obviously enjoy it. It is something that actually fuels them. 'They are a progressive kind of rapist that would lead to, I would expect, to go from just raping, to raping and murdering'. Within three weeks of carrying out the attack, Gordon broke into the home of a second woman armed with a set of knives. But as he crept into her bedroom, placing two seven-inch knives outside the door, Gordon was startled to find her husband home. Gordon battered him around the head with a shovel before fleeing in panic. Gordon was jailed for 40 years, serving half of that in the US before being deported back to the UK. When he was sentenced for both attacks, the rape victim pleaded with a judge to never let him free saying: 'I ask you to make sure that this man does not have the opportunity to destroy any more lives. 'Someone who is capable of doing this, a cruel calculated act at this age is not going to get better. He is only going to do more harm in society.' The rape victim, who cannot be named, welcomed Gordon's conviction today, telling the Mail: 'I'm very happy. This, once again, proves that our justice system works. They are too dangerous to be free to hurt anyone else. 'Hopefully, this time, they will never get that chance again. Unfortunately, Victoria had to pay the price.' Gordon hid his appalling criminal history from Marten when they met in 2016, keeping it secret until after they had a spiritual marriage in Peru and had their first child together. It wasn't until he assaulted two police officers in hospital after Marten gave birth under a false name that she learnt he was a violent rapist considered at 'high risk' of reoffending. Gordon later attacked Marten when she was pregnant with their third child, throwing her out of their flat window and sending her plunging 18ft to the ground, hitting a car on the way. As she lay screaming in agony with a shattered spleen and internal bleeding, putting her life and her unborn child at risk, Gordon didn't call an ambulance and attempted to delay paramedics alerted by concerned neighbours. Marten would spend the next eight days in hospital recovering from surgery, but Gordon demanded she should be discharged despite doctors warning this would put her life at risk. The domestic abuse was the catalyst for a family court judge to rule their four older children should be taken into care for their own protection from a 'violent sex offender' whose actions had 'put her life and the life of their unborn child at serious risk'. Two years before the death of Victoria, District Judge Madeleine Reardon warned: 'It is much more likely than not that in the foreseeable future the children will be exposed to serious physical violence between their parents. 'It is quite possible that they will be injured themselves.' When police discovered a placenta in Marten and Gordon's car, revealing the existence of their fifth child, authorities were so concerned for baby Victoria's welfare that an emergency care order was made on January 20 so she could immediately be taken from her parents. Tragically, police did not find her in time to save the infant, who died of hypothermia, exposure or co-sleeping, experts believe. Afterwards Gordon tried to avoid prosecution for his daughter's death, claiming he faced a higher risk of jury prejudice than Couzens. Neena Crinnion, defending, argued Gordon could not have a fair trial as he had been portrayed as a 'black rapist' on the run with a 'white aristocrat', adding: 'Ms Marten was described as beautiful, refined, educated, an aristocrat who had links to the Royal Family, whereas Mr Gordon is repeatedly referred to as 'the rapist'.' In a scandal which raises questions about the legal aid system, Marten was granted taxpayer funding for her defence despite her huge wealth. She attempted to claim a raft of benefits, including child benefits for her elder children after they had already been taken into care, and demanded to be given a council house after turning down a home in London paid for by her trust fund. During their prosecution, the couple conspired to delay, lie and obfuscate repeatedly in a bid to sabotage the case, shocking one of Britain's most senior judges, who declared that they behaved worse than teenage murderers. The pair spun a web of conspiracy, claiming social workers were working with Marten's aristocratic family to abduct their children and private investigators were bombing cars and spying on their every move, while police hunted them like 'terrorists'. But Prosecutor Tom Little KC dismissed Marten's 'grandstanding on a Premier League level', saying 'lies fell from her mouth like confetti in the wind'. The unprecedented case is now the subject of a national child safeguarding review to consider whether new laws should be brought in to protect unborn children. Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford, who led the case, believes that lives could be saved if officers had the power to bring in protection and family contact orders before a baby is born to parents considered at high risk of harming their children. He said: 'At the moment police are powerless to protect that child until a baby draws their first breath. 'If there was a change in the law, we could put contact orders in place to monitor the pregnancy and protection orders could be in place before that child is born so they could immediately be taken into care. 'If you look at cases like Baby P, this could save lives.' Following the jury's verdict after 14 hours of deliberation, the officer 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. She should have recently celebrated her second birthday, but this was snatched away by the very people who should've protected and cared for her. 'This was an incredibly challenging investigation for the hundreds of officers who were involved in the search. Our main focus throughout the search was finding Victoria alive and we all remain devastated by her death. 'As anyone who's followed this trial will know, it was an incredibly complex investigation. Mark Gordon and Constance Marten deliberately avoided the authorities and continued to shield Victoria from us even after their arrest. This meant even the most experienced child pathologists in the country were unable to establish the cause of Victoria's death. 'We know today's verdict won't bring Victoria back, but I am pleased our painstaking investigation has resulted in those who caused her death being brought to justice. 'Victoria's death was completely avoidable. The couple had plenty of opportunities to do the right thing and come forward to ask for help. 'They knew throughout that officers were looking for them and baby Victoria. They also ignored medical professionals who directly reached out to them to say their actions were putting baby Victoria at risk. 'In court, Marten said they moved around a lot to avoid 'one single authority' having jurisdiction over their daughter. Marten stated that her children had been 'stolen by the state,' referring to the social care system after her previous four children were removed from her by the family court. 'I would like to personally thank the media for the positive support you showed throughout the search, the many members of the public who reported sightings and Sussex Police for the support provided in the arrests and subsequent search for Victoria. This support was incredibly important to the investigation throughout. 'Speaking personally as a father, I find it hard to comprehend how, instead of providing the warmth and care their child needed, Mark Gordon and Constance Marten chose to live outside during freezing conditions to avoid the authorities, causing the death of baby Victoria. 'Throughout the trial, both defendants made repeated attempts to disrupt and frustrate the judicial process, employing tactics designed to undermine proceedings and shift focus away from the serious charges they faced. Their behaviour ranged from non-cooperation and persistent interruptions aimed at delaying progress. 'Despite these challenges, the professionalism and resilience of the legal advocates, the judge, and court staff ensured that the integrity of the trial was maintained throughout. Through careful case management, clear judicial direction, and a steadfast commitment to due process, the court was able to navigate these obstructions effectively. As a result, the jury remained focused on the evidence and, unimpeded by the defendants' attempts to derail the proceedings, reached today's just and rightful guilty verdict.' The couple will be sentenced on September 15.
