Constance Marten and Mark Gordon

Disappearance of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon
The memorial made by locals in tribute to the deceased baby.
Date5 January – 1 March 2023 (2023-01-05 – 2023-03-01)
Duration55 days
Location
Deaths1
Arrests2
SuspectsConstance Marten
Mark Gordon
ChargesManslaughter by gross negligence, child cruelty, concealing the birth of a child, perverting the course of justice
Trial26 January – 19 June 2024 (2024-01-26 – 2024-06-19)
10 March – 14 July 2025 (2025-03-10 – 2025-07-14) (retrial)
VerdictGuilty
Convictions14 years (Marten)
14 years plus 4 years on extended licence (Gordon)[1]
SentenceImprisonment

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon are a couple who disappeared between 5 January 2023, when their burning car was found abandoned near Bolton, and the day of their arrest on 27 February 2023, in Brighton. Their disappearance coincided with the birth of their daughter. When the couple were subsequently arrested, they were not with their baby, triggering a police search involving over 200 officers across an area of around 90 sq mi (230 km2) extending from Brighton to Newhaven.

On 1 March 2023, the child's body was discovered in a shopping bag inside an allotment shed, near to where the couple had been apprehended. After two trials, Marten and Gordon were convicted of causing the child's death through gross negligence.

Background

Constance Marten was born into a wealthy family in 1987, and was privately educated at St Mary's School, Shaftesbury.[2] She studied Arabic at the University of Leeds and then worked for Al Jazeera. Her parents are Napier Marten and Virginie de Selliers, and she has three brothers.[3][4][5] She grew up in Crichel House in Dorset, and when she was about nine years old, her father abandoned his family and assets, and later resurfaced in Australia.[2] She became estranged from her family around 2012. She had met Gordon in a London incense shop around 2014, and they became friends while she attended East 15 Acting School. In 2016, while travelling in Peru, Marten and Gordon were married in a ceremony that is not legally recognised in the UK. She became a beneficiary of her grandmother's will, receiving payments from the Sturt Family trust fund, which were paid into her account from private bank Hoares. However, funds to her were often paid sporadically into her private bank account, until she reminded the trustees that "they had a duty of care" towards her and to maintain her in a comparable manner to her siblings. Marten made claims that the trust had failed to provide her with a home.[6][3][5][7][8]

Mark Gordon was born in Birmingham, West Midlands in 1974, and moved to Florida, United States, with his mother when he was young.[9] In 1989, at the age of 14, he broke into a neighbour's property and raped her at knifepoint.[10] Less than a month later, Gordon broke into another nearby home to attempt a robbery and when he found an occupant there, he beat the man with a shovel that he had brought with him.[10]

He confessed to the police without legal advice or adult supervision. Despite being a minor, he was tried as an adult.[11] He was advised to plead guilty to "one count of armed kidnapping, four separate counts of armed sexual battery and one count of burglary with a deadly weapon".[10][11] He served 20 years of his 40-year sentence in prison before being deported back to the UK in 2010, still protesting his innocence.[9]

Clair Wills, writing for the London Review of Books, describes the likely causes of Marten and Gordon's distrust of the authorities and of Marten's family: They had had four children taken into foster care, where one was physically abused. Gordon himself had been sexually abused at a public nursery in Birmingham when four years old.[12] Marten's father had started the process by which social services took her children away. Her mother had offered to look after the two older children, before changing her mind. Private investigators had followed Marten for both sides of her family.[13]

The couple were sought by police from 5 January 2023, onwards, when their Peugeot 206 car was found abandoned and on fire next to the M61 motorway in Bolton, Greater Manchester.[14] Evidence was discovered that Marten had given birth several days before. The couple asked a passing motorist to take them, and their baby, to the nearest services.[3] They then travelled by taxis to Liverpool, then Harwich in Essex, then London and finally to Brighton on 8 January.[14] More than 100 officers of the Metropolitan Police were involved in the initial search, assisted by the National Crime Agency.[15]

After the couple were found without their baby on 27 February, an extensive search encompassing around 90 sq mi (230 km2) of land from Brighton to Newhaven involving over 200 officers, helicopters, sniffer dogs, drones and thermal cameras took place.[16][17] A baby's remains were found about 48 hours after the search began, having been wrapped in a plastic bag and hidden inside a shed on an allotment.[18]

Arrest

The couple were found and arrested in Hollingdean, Brighton, on 27 February 2023. They refused to respond to repeated questioning concerning the location of their missing child.[14][19]

On 1 March, remains of the baby (referred to legally as 'Baby A'), were discovered. It is believed she died weeks earlier on 9 January but the cause of death could not be ascertained.[14][7] It was disclosed on 3 March that the child's body, still wearing a dirty nappy had been wrapped in a Lidl plastic bag, mixed with soil and empty beer can,[20] and hidden inside a shed on an allotment near to where the couple were arrested.[18]

On 3 March, the couple appeared before Crawley Magistrates' Court, charged with gross negligence manslaughter, concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.[21][22] During the court appearance the baby's name was revealed to be Victoria, but was subsequently referred to only as "Baby A".[23][24] The couple were remanded in custody, pending their further appearance at Central London's Old Bailey on 31 March 2023.[25]

Old Bailey trial

The accused couple appeared in the Old Bailey dock in early January 2024. They denied all charges relating to the death of Baby A contained within the charges presented to the court by the prosecution.[23] The judge, Mark Lucraft KC, ordered the selection and swearing in of the jury. The trial commenced on 26 January 2024.

The Telegraph reported that "The couple are accused of concealing the birth of a child, cruelty to a person under 16, causing or allowing the death of a child, manslaughter by gross negligence and perverting the course of justice."[3]

The jury were shown photographs of partly destroyed baby clothes and belongings on 31 January. On 27 February, the court heard evidence from social services about the sleep dangers that Marten was informed of twice, in relation to her new born baby.[26][27][28][6]

Giving evidence in her defence, on 7 March, Marten was asked if she had ever been cruel. She replied that she "did nothing but show her love" to her daughter, adding that she had given her daughter "the best that any mother would". She said she felt "intense grief" after she awoke to find the lifeless child tucked inside her jacket.[29] Her partner and co-defendant, Mark Gordon had earlier "changed his mind" about giving evidence and was not called by his barrister John Femi-Ola KC to defend himself under oath.[30][31][32]

Giving further evidence on 8 March, Marten said she felt responsible for falling asleep on the baby, "If that is what happened" she explained to the court, "I had to escape my family as my family are extremely oppressive and bigoted and they would not allow me to have children with my husband and they would do anything to erase that child from the family line."[5] Marten concluded her defence evidence on 25 March, by explaining that initially she and Gordon had lied to the police about the circumstance of their daughter's death, scared that they would be blamed and that the charges would "pile up on them".[33][34]

The defence team called Professor Peter Fleming,[35] an expert in infant health and developmental physiology at the University of Bristol. In his testimony to the jury, he stated, "I have seen no evidence of hypothermia as a cause of death." Questioned on the age of the child at death, which the prosecution had placed at eight weeks, and having assessed the child's foot size, Fleming responded: "All the pointers suggest to me that she was much younger. The best fit is that she was two or three weeks [old]."[34] After 73 hours of deliberations, the jury failed to reach a verdict and were discharged on 19 June 2024.[36]

On 26 June 2024, following the lifting of legal restrictions, it was reported that Marten and Gordon had been found guilty of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice. The jury had been unable to reach a verdict on the other charges. The prosecution said it would seek a retrial, and Judge Mark Lucraft KC said it would probably be scheduled for March 2025, and that the defendants should remain in custody.[37]

The retrial began on 10 March 2025, where it was revealed that Marten and Gordon had four previous children who had been put into care.[38] On 14 July, both Marten and Gordon were found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence.[39] It was later revealed that the defendants went to extraordinary lengths to try and sabotage their retrial, including refusing to turn up to court, talking to each other during proceedings, and replacing multiple barristers.[40] Marten had a total of 14 barristers who represented her at some point during the process. Gordon ultimately represented himself in the court proceedings and used his opportunity to cross-question Marten on their joint-parenting history.[40][41]

On 15 September 2025, Marten and Gordon were both sentenced by Judge Mark Lucraft KC to 14 years imprisonment, ruling that they would serve two-thirds of their sentence in custody. Gordon was further ordered to serve an additional four years on extended licence, due to his violent past.[42][1]

Reactions

On 2 March 2023 at 6 pm, a candlelight vigil was held for Baby A[23][21] at St Mary Magdalene's Church in Coldean, Brighton.[43]

A spontaneous memorial was made on the corner between Stanmer Villas and Golf Drive, near to where the deceased baby was found.[44]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Rawlinson, Kevin (15 September 2025). "Constance Marten and Mark Gordon both jailed for 14 years over death of baby in Brighton tent". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  2. 1 2 Ough, Tom (3 March 2023). "Constance Marten: The missing aristocrat, her rapist partner and the family rift". The Independent. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Evans, Martin (26 January 2024). "Constance Marten was receiving thousands in trust fund payments while on the run, court hears". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 30 January 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  4. ↑ "Baby died after 'selfish' Dorset aristocrat mother went off-grid, court told". Dorset Echo. 25 January 2024. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 Evans, Martin; Barton, Alex (8 March 2024). "I had to escape oppressive and bigoted family, Constance Marten tells court". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 8 March 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  6. 1 2 Sandford, Daniel (22 February 2024). "Constance Marten had £48k paid into her account". BBC News. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  7. 1 2 Corbishley, Sam (7 March 2024). "Constance Marten tells manslaughter trial she 'gave baby best any mother would'". Metro. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  8. ↑ Sandford, Daniel; McDermott, Sarah. "The chaotic lives of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon". BBC News. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
  9. 1 2 Adams, Zoe (2 March 2023). "Who is Mark Gordon? Age, crimes and family background revealed". LBC News. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  10. 1 2 3 Kingsley, Thomas (23 January 2023). "Revealed: Full details of Constance Marten's rapist boyfriend's violent sex crimes". Independent. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  11. 1 2 Wills, Clair (14 August 2025). "The Price of Safety". London Review of Books. London. Retrieved 7 August 2026. Many of the details in his confession didn't tally with the rape victim's account; he did not see a lawyer and he gave his statement without an adult present. He later said he believed he would be released if he confessed. ...Miller ruled he was to be tried as an adult. Gordon was advised to plead guilty, although it is unclear how his defence thought this would benefit him. ...What the defence psychologist interpreted as the behaviour of a misguided and immature boy who 'simply misread the cues', the victim experienced as four hours of torment at the point of a knife. Because Gordon pleaded guilty, there was no trial and neither account was tested in court. The psychologist for the prosecution based his evidence on the testimony of the victim, whose account, he said, had all the marks of a 'sociopathic sadistic rape where the victim is subjected to torture and fear'. He insisted on describing Gordon as a sociopath, even though his role was only to describe the psychological effects on the victim... Gordon was sentenced to life in an adult prison because two judges (at the waiver and the sentencing hearings) rejected the risk assessments of the psychologists who had met him and who argued he should be sentenced as a youthful offender to a residential rehabilitation centre.
  12. ↑ Wills, Clair (14 August 2025). "The Price of Safety". London Review of Books. London. Retrieved 7 August 2026. Marten also claimed that one of the children was physically abused by a foster carer, an accusation that was confirmed by the prosecution during the course of the first trial. ...[Gordon's mother told a state defence attorney in January 1990] that when Mark was four years old, he had been sexually abused by a male employee at his nursery in Birmingham. She was advised not to talk to him about the abuse, in the hope that he would forget about it. ...there is more than irony in the fact that it was in a public nursery that Gordon was abused as a child, and that one of the couple's children was physically abused in foster care.
  13. ↑ Wills, Clair (14 August 2025). "The Price of Safety". London Review of Books. London. Retrieved 7 August 2026. Behind the anger directed at social services was Marten's rage towards her family. When giving evidence she accused them of being 'bigoted' in their disapproval of her relationship with Gordon (they wanted, she said, to 'erase' his children from the family). She made what at first appeared to be outlandish claims, all of which were subsequently upheld: that both sides of her family had employed private detectives to follow her; that it was her father, rather than social services, who had initiated proceedings to make the children wards of court in 2019; that her family had stated they would look after the children but then changed their minds, leaving them to be adopted by strangers. ('That's one of the reasons I no longer speak to my parents,' she said in the retrial, 'because they were the ones who instigated them being removed from me. I begged them to come forward but they refused, they didn't want them in the "family line".') As the family court documents show, Marten's mother, Virginie de Selliers, did offer to take the older two children shortly before the final hearing, but over the weekend changed her mind and proposed instead that 'if the parents were to separate, the maternal family would be available to support the mother practically, emotionally and financially.'
  14. 1 2 3 4 France, Anthony; Burrell, Miriam (2 March 2023). "Missing baby 'dead for several weeks' before discovery, say police". Evening Standard. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  15. ↑ Kingsley, Thomas (23 January 2023). "Missing aristocrat and boyfriend could be overseas with baby, ex-police chief says". Independent. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  16. ↑ Seddon, Sean; Adams, Charley (1 March 2023). "Constance Marten arrest: Police continue questioning after baby found". BBC News. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  17. ↑ Hughes, Lorna; Manning, Jonathon (3 March 2023). "Brighton police investigation continues after baby remains found – updates". SussexLive. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  18. 1 2 Sawer, Patrick (3 March 2023). "Baby's body found in plastic bag in shed during search for Constance Marten's newborn". The Telegraph. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  19. ↑ Constance Marten asked 'where is your child?' in arrest video, retrieved 7 February 2024
  20. ↑ "'A relentless, destructive energy': inside the trial of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon". The Guardian. 15 July 2025. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  21. 1 2 "CPS authorises charges against Constance Marten and Mark Gordon | The Crown Prosecution Service". www.cps.gov.uk. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
  22. ↑ Dugan, Emily (3 March 2023). "Constance Marten and Mark Gordon remanded in custody over death of baby Victoria". The Guardian. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  23. 1 2 3 "Delay for trial of parents whose dead baby was found in Brighton". Brighton and Hove News. 2 January 2024. Retrieved 19 January 2024.
  24. ↑ "Constance Marten and Mark Gordon in court charged with manslaughter of baby girl called Victoria". Sky News. 3 March 2023. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  25. ↑ Adams, Charley (3 March 2023). "Constance Marten and Mark Gordon in court over baby Victoria manslaughter charge". BBC News. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  26. ↑ "Recap as trial of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon at Old Bailey adjourned to next week". The Argus. 1 February 2024. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  27. ↑ Corbishley, Sam (1 February 2024). "Constance Marten trial shown harrowing photos of destroyed baby clothes". Metro. Retrieved 1 February 2024.
  28. ↑ Pennink, Emily (27 February 2024). "Constance Marten warned twice of sleep risk before baby's death, court told". Evening Standard. Retrieved 27 February 2024.
  29. ↑ Cobham, Tara (7 March 2024). "Constance Marten trial – latest: Aristocrat accused of killing newborn calls baby's death a 'horrible accident'". The Independent. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  30. ↑ Rawlinson, Kevin (7 March 2024). "I showed my baby nothing but love, Constance Marten tells Old Bailey jury". The Guardian.
  31. ↑ Crabbe, Ellie (4 March 2024). "Trial adjourned after Mark Gordon changes mind about giving evidence". The Argus. Retrieved 7 March 2024.
  32. ↑ "Barrister Details - Mr Abiodun John Femi-Ola KC". The Bar Standards Board. Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  33. ↑ "Constance Marten and partner 'told each other to lie to police' after baby's death, jury told". Sky News. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  34. 1 2 Sandford, Daniel (26 March 2024). "Constance Marten and Mark Gordon: 'Unlikely' baby died of hypothermia, trial hears". BBC News. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  35. ↑ "Directory of Experts". University of Bristol. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  36. ↑ "Jury discharged in trial of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon over death of their newborn baby". Sky News. 19 June 2024. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  37. ↑ Sandford, Daniel (26 June 2024). "Constance Marten and Mark Gordon guilty of two charges". BBC News. Retrieved 3 May 2025.
  38. ↑ Sandford, Daniel (10 March 2025). "Constance Marten and Mark Gordon retrial begins". BBC News. Retrieved 3 May 2025.
  39. ↑ "Constance Marten and Mark Gordon guilty of killing their newborn baby". Sky News. 14 July 2025. Retrieved 14 July 2025.
  40. 1 2 Wilkinson, Helena (15 July 2025). "I've never seen a case like Constance Marten and Mark Gordon's – it was jaw-dropping". BBC.
  41. ↑ The Big Cases - The Aristocrat, the Convict and the Missing Baby. Retrieved 16 September 2025 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  42. ↑ "Constance Marten and Mark Gordon jailed for 14 years over death of their baby - latest". BBC News. Retrieved 15 September 2025.
  43. ↑ "Candlelit vigil held for baby whose remains were found in Brighton woodland". ITV News. 2 March 2023. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
  44. ↑ Gardner, Andrew (3 March 2023). "Constance Marten: Brighton residents gather for vigil to remember baby". The Argus. Retrieved 4 March 2023.
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