A runaway British aristocrat and convicted rapist had been discovered responsible over their child’s loss of life. Right here’s how their story unfolded

After they wished, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon may very well be heat and caring mother and father.

A household decide described interactions with their kids as “glorious,” with the 2 in a position to act in a “loving and attentive method.”

However a high-profile court docket case that shocked even seasoned authorized figures painted a special image, of a pair so fixated on one another and suspicious of outdoor authority they didn’t look after their very own baby.

This week, Marten and Gordon had been discovered responsible of manslaughter after their new child daughter, Victoria, was discovered lifeless in a grocery bag inside a disused shed. They are going to be sentenced later this 12 months.

Police found Victoria’s physique on March 1, 2023 – two days after her mother and father had been arrested following a 53-day search.

Marten and Gordon had travelled throughout the UK with their new child, hopping from metropolis to metropolis and finally sleeping in a tent regardless of frigid winter situations, in an try and evade authorities.

They believed that Victoria could be taken from them after their earlier 4 kids had been taken into foster care, London’s Metropolitan Police mentioned in a press release launched after their conviction.

The nationwide search and ensuing court docket instances gripped Britain, not least due to Marten’s privileged background and Gordon’s violent legal previous.

Placing their relationship first

Marten, 38, grew up in a rich, aristocratic household with ties to the royal household. She was privately educated, travelled throughout Africa, and had labored as a journalist for Al Jazeera.

She met Gordon, whom she referred to as her “soulmate,” at an incense store in north London in 2014, in line with Britain’s PA Media. Prosecutors mentioned they had been in a relationship from 2016.

Gordon, who at 51 is 13 years her senior, has a “vital legal historical past, involving severe sexual violence” which he perpetrated as a teen, court docket paperwork present.

A case element from a Florida court docket exhibits that he was convicted of armed sexual battery, armed kidnapping, kidnapping, and housebreaking with a lethal weapon in 1989. He served 22 years in jail and was launched in 2010, PA reported.

The couple’s relationship concerned home violence, in line with the paperwork from a London household court docket decide, written earlier than Victoria’s physique was discovered.

In 2019, when Marten was pregnant with the couple’s third baby, Gordon both pushed or brought on her to fall out of a window throughout an argument, inflicting “severe accidents,” the household court docket paperwork say. Gordon didn’t search any medical help, “placing her life and that of the unborn baby in danger,” they add.

The pair seemingly had an aversion to authority, repeatedly failing to interact with baby safety officers regardless of considerations being voiced about their kids’s wellbeing.

In January 2022, a decide discovered that the couple put their relationship “earlier than all different concerns,” together with their kids’s well being, and ordered that their 4 kids had been positioned within the custody of authorities.

In late December 2022, when Marten was closely pregnant with their fifth baby, they went on the run.

Burned-out automotive sparks hunt

In early January 2023, police in northern England launched a nationwide seek for Gordon and Marten after discovering a placenta in a burned-out automotive on a freeway. The automotive, which was “utterly gutted,” nonetheless had remnants of diapers and blankets inside, in line with Higher Manchester Police.

“Proof means that Constance has very not too long ago given delivery and neither her (nor) the child have been assessed by medical professionals,” Higher Manchester Police mentioned on the time.

Within the following days, the couple travelled throughout the nation, making a number of stops earlier than ending up in Newhaven, a seaside city overlooking the English Channel.

The couple largely travelled by taxi, paying a whole lot of kilos per journey. Marten had roughly £19,000 (round $25,000) in her checking account when she was arrested, PA mentioned.

CCTV footage from a lodge in Harwich, Essex, the place the pair stayed on January 6, confirmed a child beneath Marten’s coat, the Metropolitan Police mentioned.

The subsequent day, the couple had been noticed shopping for a stroller, but it surely was too large for the new child Victoria. They dumped the stroller in an alleyway and transferred the child to a grocery bag, in line with police.

The general public reported seeing the couple a lot of occasions over the next weeks. On January 16, they had been seen dwelling in a tent on a nature reserve close to Brighton. Temperatures in that space typically fell beneath freezing at night time. They lived within the tent for greater than a month, police mentioned.