Marten and Mark Gordon were in hiding when their baby daughter, Victoria, died in a tent on the South Downs in January 2023.

Aristocrat Constance Marten has been granted permission to appeal the 14-year jail sentence she was handed for her baby’s death while on the run with her partner.

Marten, 39, and convicted rapist Mark Gordon, 52, were in hiding when their baby daughter, Victoria, died in a tent on the South Downs in southern England in January 2023.

They had fled authorities to prevent Victoria being taken into care, as four other siblings had been before, their Old Bailey trial was told.

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Marten and Gordon 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.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC jailed them both for 14 years and handed Gordon a further four years on extended licence.

Marten has now been granted permission to appeal the sentence, and renewed her application for permission to appeal her gross negligence manslaughter conviction.

A court date is yet to be set.

CCTV footage of Constance Marten holding baby Victoria under her coat outside Special Connection in East Ham, London
CCTV footage of Constance Marten holding baby Victoria under her coat outside Special Connection in East Ham, London (Metropolitan Police/PA)

Judge Lucraft 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”.

Police had launched a nationwide hunt after the couple’s car burst into flames on a motorway near Bolton, Greater Manchester, on January 5 2023.

The defendants travelled across England and went off-grid, sleeping in a tent on the South Downs where baby Victoria died days later.

After seven weeks on the run, the defendants were arrested in Brighton.

After a desperate search, police found their baby dead amid rubbish inside a Lidl bag in a disused shed nearby.

More from Perspective

Get a free copy of our print edition

News

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Fill out this field
Fill out this field
Please enter a valid email address.
You need to agree with the terms to proceed

Your email address will not be published. The views expressed in the comments below are not those of Perspective. We encourage healthy debate, but racist, misogynistic, homophobic and other types of hateful comments will not be published.