Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were found guilty in the death of their baby

Cnn
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When they wanted, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon could be warm and caring parents.

A family judge described the interactions with their children as “excellent”, whereby the two were able to act “lovingly and attentively”.

A top -class court case, in which even experienced legal figures, painted another picture of a couple who fixed themselves and suspiciously against the foreign authority was suspicious that they did not take care of their own child.

This week, Marten and Gordon were found guilty they will be convicted later this year.

The police discovered Victoria's body on March 1, 2023-two days after her parents had been arrested for a 53-day search.

Marten and Gordon had traveled through Great Britain with their newborn, climbed from city to city and finally slept in a tent despite the cold winter conditions to escape the authorities.

They believed that Victoria would be taken from them after their previous four children were accepted into foster families, London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement published after their conviction.

The nationwide search and the subsequent legal proceedings, not least because of the privileged background of Marten and Gordon's violent criminal past.

Marten, 38, grew up in a wealthy, aristocratic family with connections to the royal family. She was privately trained, traveled through Africa and was worked as a journalist for Al Jazera.

According to the British PA media, she met Gordon, whom she called “soul mandates”, in a frankincense business in North -London. The prosecutors said they were in a relationship from 2016.

Gordon, who is her senior at the age of 51, has an “significant criminal history that contains serious sexual violence”, which he committed as a teenager, as court documents show.

A case detail from a Florida court shows that he was convicted in 1989 for armed sexual battery, armed kidnapping, kidnapping and burglary. He was in prison for 22 years and was released in 2010, reported PA.

The couple's relationship included domestic violence according to the documents of a judge of the family court in London, which was found before Victoria's body.

When Marten was pregnant with the couple's third child in 2019, Gordon urged either or let them fall out of a window and caused “serious injuries” during a dispute, according to the family court's documents. Gordon was not looking for medical help, “life and that of the unborn child in danger,” they added.

The couple apparently had an aversion to the authority and failed not to deal with child protection officers, although concerns about the well -being of their children were expressed.

In January 2022, a judge found that the couple “ordered his relationship” above all other considerations “, including the health of her children,” ordered that their four children were admitted to the authorities.

At the end of December 2022, when Marten was very pregnant with her fifth child, they went on the run.

At the beginning of January 2023, the police started a nationwide search for Gordon and Marten in Northern England after finding a placenta in a burned -out car on a highway. According to the Greater Manchester police, the car, which was “completely gutted”, still had the remains of diapers and blankets.

“Evidence indicates that Constance has born recently and that neither her (nor) the baby was evaluated by medical specialists,” said the Greater Manchester police at the time.

In the following days the couple traveled through the country and made several stops before he ended up in Newhaven, a coastal city with a view of the English Channel.

The couple mainly traveled by taxi and paid hundreds of pounds per trip. Marten had around 19,000 pounds (around 25,000 US dollars) on her bank account when she was arrested, said PA.

CCTV film material from a hotel in Harwich, Essex, where the couple stayed on January 6th, a baby showed under the marten coat, shared the metropolitan policy.

The next day the couple was seen when he bought a stroller, but it was too big for the newborn Victoria. They threw the stroller into a alley and put the baby into a shopping bag, according to the police.

The public reported to see the couple several times in the following weeks. On January 16, they lived in a tent in a nature reserve near Brighton. The temperatures in this area often fell under freezing at night. They lived in the tent for more than a month, the police said.

The couple had previously been warned by the social workers that it was “completely unsuitable” for a baby to live in a tent, according to Crown Concity Service (CPS) – advice on their other children who were included in the care of the authorities.

On February 27, 2023, the couple was arrested after being discovered in a shop in Brighton. Baby Victoria was nowhere to be found.

Street interviews on the roadside, which are shared by the Metropolitan Police Show Officers who asked the baby's parents where they were. Marten did not answer the question and instead asked why she was arrested. Gordon repeatedly asked the police for Essen.

Two days later, Victoria's decomposing body was found in a dandruff in a community garden in which they had lived. Patologists could not confirm how it died.

Marten finally told the police that their baby had died when the couple slept, according to the London metropolitan police.

The CPS said it was not exactly known when Victoria was born or died, but it was assumed that she was alive for a few weeks and was forced to endure the cold outdoor. CCTV film material showed it insufficiently dressed, without a hat, socks or even a blanket.

“Their ruthless acts were driven by the selfish desire to keep their baby regardless of the costs – which led to their tragic death,” said Samantha Yelland, a senior public prosecutor for CPS London, Marten and Gordon. They let off their cell phones and avoided using bank cards until they wanted to go hungry when they tried to avoid the police, added.

Court reporting from the court proceedings in Alter Bailey in London describes the procedure as chaotic.

The defendants repeatedly caused disorders in the courtroom and often did not show up in court.

Once, said PA, Marten revealed information about Gordon's rape assessment to the jury – although this was deliberately not announced in court to ensure a fair procedure.

Marten was represented in a total of 14 lawyers in two attempts – one that took place in 2024, and a repetition ending on Monday, reported PA.

Gordon also applied for the lawyer of five lawyers in both legal proceedings, said the agency, but towards the end of the resumption he represented himself.

The resumption was requested by the CPS after the jury did not achieve a judgment in 2024 whether the couple was guilty of manslaughter, even though they were convicted of charges, including crosquate. She lost to these convictions.

On Monday, the couple was unanimously found to be guilty of negligent negligence. The British media reported that Gordon said from the Dock that he would appeal.

According to PA, judge Mark Lucraft said at one point that he “never” met Gordon and Marten before the “type of attitude” that Gordon and Marten showed, and added that two teenagers who had been in court on that day “behaved rather better – and they were guilty of murdering.

Jaswant Narwal, chief crown prosecutor at CPS London, described the court hearings as “challenging” and said in an explanation after their conviction that “Marten and Gordon showed little remorse for their actions and used various poses to frustrate and delay the legal process.”

Det. Insp. Dave Sinclair, who first reacted to the calls about the burned -out car that had triggered the search for Victoria, described her death “completely avoidable” and only to the actions of her parents.

“I'm just really sad. It's such a tragic waste of life,” he said.

“There was enough opportunity for her to have looked for help, to have dealt with the social welfare problems for the baby, to have assigned yourself to the authorities and get this help. And there may have been a different result.”