Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have each been sentenced to 14 years in prison for the manslaughter of their newborn daughter, Victoria, whom they took to live in a tent in wintry conditions in Brighton to evade social services. The couple went off the grid in late 2022 after their four older children were taken into care due to safety concerns.
A jury at the Old Bailey unanimously found them guilty of manslaughter in July, following a retrial. They had also been convicted of perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, and child cruelty. Sentencing on Monday, Judge Lucraft KC stated that the couple displayed 'arrogance' and that their actions constituted 'neglect of the gravest and most serious type'. He noted no genuine remorse from either defendant.
The judge also handed Gordon an additional four years on extended licence. DCI Joanna Yorke of the Met Police said their 'selfish actions resulted in the death of an innocent newborn baby who would have recently had her second birthday'. Chief Crown Prosecutor Jaswant Narwal added that no child 'should have had its life cut short in this preventable way'.
The couple spent seven weeks on the run before being found by police in Brighton. Officers had launched a nationwide hunt after finding their burnt-out car near Bolton, Greater Manchester, in January 2023. Victoria's body was later discovered in a Lidl bag in a disused shed; her remains were too decomposed to establish cause of death. Prosecution argued she died from hypothermia or smothering.
Gordon's violent past, including a rape conviction in Florida in 1989 for which he served 22 years of a 40-year sentence, was revealed during the retrial. He also had a 2017 conviction for assaulting two police officers in Wales. Marten had been warned by social workers about the risk of falling asleep with a baby.
