Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, were in hiding when their baby daughter Victoria died in a tent on the South Downs in January 2023.
The defendants had fled authorities to prevent baby Victoria being taken into care, as four other siblings had been before, the Old Bailey had heard.
They were found guilty of her manslaughter, child cruelty, concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice following two trials spanning six months each.
On Monday, Judge Mark Lucraft KC jailed them both for 14 years and handed Gordon a further four years on extended licence.
The judge accepted the prosecution case that baby Victoria died from hypothermia after being exposed to “significant cold stress”.
He rejected the defendants’ claims that Victoria was smothered in a “terrible accident” as they slept in the tent.
The offending was made worse because the baby was vulnerable and the defendants failed to listen to past warnings.
In a televised sentencing, Judge Lucraft told the defendants: “It is clear throughout the period neither of you gave much or any thought for the care or love for your baby.”
The judge said they had displayed “arrogance” and treated Victoria to “neglect of the most serious type”.
Concerns were first raised on January 5, 2023, when Constance Marten and Mark Gordon’s car caught fire on the M61 in Greater Manchester. Firefighters found nappies, clothing and a placenta inside, but the couple had fled before emergency services arrived.
They were later tracked travelling from Bolton to Liverpool, before paying a taxi driver £350 to take them to Harwich in Essex, where Marten checked into a hotel under a false name.
From Harwich they moved on to Colchester and then east London, where CCTV captured them buying a buggy in East Ham and later dining in Whitechapel — the last sighting of baby Victoria alive.
Days later, they travelled by taxi to Newhaven in East Sussex before heading into the South Downs, where they lived off-grid in a tent through freezing winter conditions.
On February 27, 2023, the couple were arrested in Brighton after being recognised by a member of the public.
Baby Victoria was not with them, and her body was later found in a bag in a nearby shed.
Victoria’s remains were too badly decomposed to establish the cause of death.
Earlier, the judge had told off the defendants for their “disruptive” behaviour in the dock as their lawyers were mitigating for them.
Jurors in the first trial in 2024 were not told about Gordon’s violent past, which was only partly revealed in their second trial.
In 1989, Gordon, then aged 14, held a woman against her will in Florida for more than four hours and raped her while armed with a knife and hedge clippers.
Within a month, he entered another property and carried out another offence involving aggravated battery.
Gordon, who moved with his mother from Birmingham to the US at the age of 12, was sentenced to 40 years in jail and was released after 22 years.
In 2017, Gordon was convicted of assaulting two female police officers at a maternity unit in Wales where Marten gave birth to their first child under a fake identity.
Jurors were not told that Gordon was also suspected of a 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.
Detective Chief Inspector Joanna Yorke, who led the homicide investigation into Victoria’s death, said: “The selfish actions of Mark Gordon and Constance Marten resulted in the death of an innocent newborn baby who would have recently had her second birthday and should have had the rest of her life ahead of her.
“This was an incredibly challenging investigation for the hundreds of officers across the UK who were involved in the search. Our main focus throughout the search was finding Victoria alive and we were devastated by the outcome.
“We know today’s sentencing won’t bring Victoria back, but I am pleased our investigation has resulted in the couple who caused her death finally being brought to justice.”
Courtesy of Harrow Times | Local News