The trial of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon, which concluded in 2025, laid bare a story of privilege, tragedy, and a desperate flight from authorities that captured the nation's attention. The couple's months-long evasion of police and social services ended in the most devastating way possible: with the death of their newborn daughter, Victoria.
A Life of Privilege and a Path to Tragedy
Constance Marten was not a typical defendant. She was born into an aristocratic family with distant ties to the Royal Family, growing up on a sprawling Dorset estate. Her upbringing was one of wealth and opportunity, a stark contrast to the grim circumstances of her arrest. Mark Gordon, her partner, had a very different background, having served a 20-year prison sentence in the United States for a serious sexual assault committed when he was just 14 years old.
The couple's relationship, which began around 2016, was described by those who knew Marten as intensely controlling and isolating. Her family grew increasingly concerned as she cut off contact, a process they termed "love bombing." By late 2022, Marten was heavily pregnant, and the pair were living off-grid, moving between short-term rentals and hotels, funded by tens of thousands of pounds withdrawn from Marten's trust fund.
The Relentless Flight and Its Catastrophic End
Their flight from officialdom began in earnest after a car they were travelling in caught fire on the M61 motorway in Greater Manchester in early January 2023. Firefighters discovered placenta and other signs of a recent birth in the burnt-out vehicle, triggering a massive missing persons investigation. Rather than seek help, Marten and Gordon disappeared into the urban landscape, embarking on what prosecutors would later call a "deliberate and persistent" attempt to conceal the baby.
For nearly two months, the couple criss-crossed the country, using cash for taxis, buses, and trains. They avoided all formal accommodation, instead camping in a tent on the South Downs in the depths of a bitter British winter. It was here, in a Lidl bag-for-life covered in debris, that the body of baby Victoria was finally discovered in a disused shed in March 2023. A post-mortem examination could not establish a definitive cause of death, but the conditions were described as "appalling." The infant had been exposed to sub-zero temperatures, likely for days.
The Legal Reckoning at the Old Bailey
The subsequent trial at the Old Bailey was a complex and emotionally charged affair, lasting months. The central question was not whether Victoria had died in their care—that was undisputed—but whether the couple's actions had directly caused her death. The prosecution argued that their choice to live off-grid in a tent, depriving the newborn of warmth, shelter, and proper sanitation, amounted to manslaughter by gross negligence.
The defence contended that Victoria's death was a tragic accident, and that the couple's extreme secrecy stemmed from a profound and irrational fear of social services, exacerbated by Gordon's traumatic past in the US penal system. Ultimately, the jury found them guilty of manslaughter, as well as perverting the course of justice and concealing the birth of a child. They were both sentenced to significant prison terms.
The case raised difficult questions about the limits of parental rights, the reach of the state, and the point at which personal trauma and fear override the fundamental duty to protect a helpless child. The podcast series "Today in Focus" provided an unparalleled, in-depth look at the investigation and trial, piecing together the couple's movements through financial records, CCTV, and witness testimony to tell a story of a "relentless, destructive energy" that led to an avoidable catastrophe.
