By Tristan Kirk

Copyright standard

Aristocrat Constance Marten and her convicted rapist partner Mark Gordon have been jailed for 14 years each for killing their newborn baby while on the run.

Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, decided to sleep in a tent on the South Downs during a freezing cold January, despite having baby Victoria in tow.

The little girl, who was merely days old, perished in a flimsy tent, and was ultimately abandoned in a Lidl bag for life left in a disused shed.

The death happened after Marten and Gordon went on the run from authorities, as Victoria was about to be born and knowing she would likely be taken from them and put into care.

A nationwide manhunt was launched to find the couple, but they were not located in time to save baby Victoria’s life.

At the Old Bailey on Monday, Judge Mark Lucraft KC, the Recorder of London, sentenced both Gordon and Marten to 14 years in prison.

He also found Gordon “dangerous”, and ordered that he spends a further four years on licence after his release.

The judge branded them “arrogant” and concerned with themselves, saying: “Neither of you gave much, if any, thought to the care of your baby.

“Your only focus was on yourselves.”

Marten was clutching pink rosary beans and her stack of legal papers as she was sentenced.

The judge made a finding that baby Victoria died by hypothermia, and noted that though the couple had claimed she was dressed in a ski jacket for warmth, the CCTV reveals the baby was “clad in little more than a simply baby grow”.

“In my judgement, your baby was exposed to significant cold stress”, he said.

He added that Marten and Gordon had showed no remorse, and instead tried to “blame everyone else but yourselves for what happened”.

The sentencing brings to an end a two-and-a-half year legal saga which began when Marten and Gordon disappeared, sparking urgent police appeals for help catching them.

The couple, who have been together since 2016, have had four other children together.

But each one of them has been taken from them on the orders of a court, thanks to significant concerns for their safety if left with their biological parents.

Gordon was convicted as a teenager with raping a woman after invading her home, and violently attacking a man during a second home break-in. He was jailed in 1989, and served 22 years behind bars.

Marten, who hails from a wealthy aristocratic family with ties to the Royal Family, became estranged from her family after beginning a relationship with Gordon.

Bitter family court proceedings led to their children being taken away, and the Old Bailey heard evidence from Marten that she blames her family for large parts of the events that unfolded.

Yet, glowing character references were offered up to the court to aid Marten at the sentencing hearing, from her mother Virginie de Selliers and step father Guy de Selliers.

Virginie hailed her “determined and courageous” daughter, and told the court: “She also had a fragility of nature. For all her brightness and bravery, she often doubted herself.

“She struggled with confidence and self-worth.”

She expressed horror at the portrayal of Marten in court, saying: “The cruelty of the labels used does not reflect the daughter I remember.

“What I do know is she showed sheer determination when it came to fighting for her children and Victoria.

“It is my sincere hope that when considering her future, her courage, loyalty, and deep sense of fairness are not overlooked.”

Marten’s stepfather said they had a close relationship “until she met Mark Gordon and became estranged from her family”.

He called Marten a “fascinating woman” and a “very generous and kind person.”

The manhunt for Marten and Gordon was thrust into the public consciousness when they abandoned their car at the side of a motorway near Bolton, Greater Manchester, when it burst into flames, on January 5 2023.

Police found their possessions abandoned inside the vehicle and scattered nearby, and also recovered a placenta – revealing for the first time the existence of a newborn baby.

Marten and Gordon travelled across England, attempting to stay off-grid. When the publicity of their case grew too strong, they resolved to sleep in a tent on the South Downs.

After seven weeks on the run, they were arrested in Brighton in late February 2023.

After a desperate search, police found baby Victoria dead amid rubbish inside a Lidl bag-for-life in a disused shed nearby.

The newborn had been dead for some time, and the exact cause of death was impossible to determine.

Marten and Gordon were both convicted of gross negligence manslaughter, child cruelty, perverting the course of justice, and concealing the birth of a child.

The convictions came at the end of two gruelling trials, marked by disruption from the defendants and chronic delays.

At the sentencing hearing, prosecutor Tom Little KC argued that baby Victoria had died from hypothermia in the cold and damp conditions inside the flimsy tent.

Marten and Gordon argued that there was not enough evidence to support that theory, urging the judge to take into account Marten’s own evidence that Victoria died in her arms.

The trials were also marked by the contempt for legal proceedings by both defendants, protracted disputes with the judge, and both defendants walking out of the witness box to avoid the questions of the prosecution.

During the sentencing hearing itself, Marten and Gordon were admonished by the judge three times for their behaviour in the dock, even threatening to have them removed from court if they continued.

Gordon’s grim past of sexual and violent offending was kept from jurors in the couple’s first trial, for fear of prejudicing his case. But Marten blurted it out in the second trial during her evidence.

The judge was on the cusp of ordering a retrial for Gordon, before he agreed that the case could continue.

Jurors were then also told of another conviction from 2017, when Gordon assaulted two female police officers at a maternity unit in Wales where Marten gave birth to their first child under a fake identity.

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 after she fell out of a window when 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 after 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 Victoria under wraps prompted the major police alert after a placenta was found inside their abandoned car near Bolton.

While on the run, Victoria was only briefly glimpsed on CCTV footage in London wearing the same teddy bear motif babygrow later recovered with her body inside the Lidl bag.

The prosecution said Victoria was carried under Marten’s jacket or in a Lidl bag without adequate clothing, warmth or shelter.

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.

After Victoria 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.

Marten has already begun the process of appealing her manslaughter conviction.

Both defendants have served two and a half years in prison already, which will count towards their sentences.