GUILTY UK - Constance Marten & Mark Gordon charged in death of baby Victoria, GUILTY on all counts incl retrial on manslaughter, 5 Jan 2023 #9

[Skigh]

From the Mail article posted above:


Gordon later attacked Marten when she was pregnant with their third child, throwing her out of their flat window and sending her plunging 18ft to the ground, hitting a car on the way.

As she lay screaming in agony with a shattered spleen and internal bleeding, putting her life and her unborn child at risk, Gordon didn't call an ambulance and attempted to delay paramedics alerted by concerned neighbours.

Marten would spend the next eight days in hospital recovering from surgery, but Gordon demanded she should be discharged despite doctors warning this would put her life at risk.

The domestic abuse was the catalyst for a family court judge to rule later that their four older children should be taken into care for their own protection from a 'violent sex offender' whose actions had 'put [Marten's] life and the life of their unborn child at serious risk'.

Experts have described Gordon as a sociopathic sex offender considered so dangerous that they compared his sadistic crimes to the American serial killer

 

[Parker Knoll]

I know it’s been tedious but it’s been such a strange and terrible case to navigate by the court.
They have shown utter disregard to the legal process and tried at every junction to derail the process.
Gordon is a psychopath.

 

[Sarahlou]

Gordon should never see daylight again.

 

[Sherlockhames]

I take back my earlier comments about being fearful they wouldn’t be found guilty. Sounds like they both behaved so abominably that the jury might just have been fed up with them! (And the jury deliberations could well have been interesting - still think there might be been individuals on the jury naturally sympathetic to them - but perhaps the jurors were persuaded that away from that sympathy by their behaviour in court! It sounds like a bit of a circus! 15 lawyers!!!

 

[Alyce]

From the above article:


Gordon later attacked Marten when she was pregnant with their third child, throwing her out of their flat window and sending her plunging 18ft to the ground, hitting a car on the way.

As she lay screaming in agony with a shattered spleen and internal bleeding, putting her life and her unborn child at risk, Gordon didn't call an ambulance and attempted to delay paramedics alerted by concerned neighbours.

Marten would spend the next eight days in hospital recovering from surgery, but Gordon demanded she should be discharged despite doctors warning this would put her life at risk.

The domestic abuse was the catalyst for a family court judge to rule later that their four older children should be taken into care for their own protection from a 'violent sex offender' whose actions had 'put [Marten's] life and the life of their unborn child at serious risk'.

No wonder he didn't want that part of his history being revealed.

And incredible that C stayed with him and had two more children. All that money, all that good education doesn't seem to have provided her with the necessary common sense.

 

[MrsWatson]

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon convicted over daughter’s death

Pair found guilty of manslaughter of newborn baby, who died after they went on run to evade social services

www.theguardian.com

 

[Yellowbelly]

From the Mail article posted above:


Gordon later attacked Marten when she was pregnant with their third child, throwing her out of their flat window and sending her plunging 18ft to the ground, hitting a car on the way.

As she lay screaming in agony with a shattered spleen and internal bleeding, putting her life and her unborn child at risk, Gordon didn't call an ambulance and attempted to delay paramedics alerted by concerned neighbours.

Marten would spend the next eight days in hospital recovering from surgery, but Gordon demanded she should be discharged despite doctors warning this would put her life at risk.

The domestic abuse was the catalyst for a family court judge to rule later that their four older children should be taken into care for their own protection from a 'violent sex offender' whose actions had 'put [Marten's] life and the life of their unborn child at serious risk'.

Experts have described Gordon as a sociopathic sex offender considered so dangerous that they compared his sadistic crimes to the American serial killer

That puts rather a different light on things. I didn't realise that it was a first floor window and that she'd fallen six metres! She's lucky to be alive.

 

[ChiefLentilWeaver]

From the Mail article posted above:


Gordon later attacked Marten when she was pregnant with their third child, throwing her out of their flat window and sending her plunging 18ft to the ground, hitting a car on the way.

As she lay screaming in agony with a shattered spleen and internal bleeding, putting her life and her unborn child at risk, Gordon didn't call an ambulance and attempted to delay paramedics alerted by concerned neighbours.

Marten would spend the next eight days in hospital recovering from surgery, but Gordon demanded she should be discharged despite doctors warning this would put her life at risk.

The domestic abuse was the catalyst for a family court judge to rule later that their four older children should be taken into care for their own protection from a 'violent sex offender' whose actions had 'put [Marten's] life and the life of their unborn child at serious risk'.

Experts have described Gordon as a sociopathic sex offender considered so dangerous that they compared his sadistic crimes to the American serial killer

Absolutely horrific. I did assume there was more to the "fall from a window" story as it seemed to be glossed over somewhat in previous reporting but was obviously very significant if it was the trigger for the older children to be removed.

 

[Alyce]

Gordon should never see daylight again.

I agree wholeheartedly with this. I do hope Judge Lucraft takes all his antics, rudeness, borderline contempt of court etc into account when sentencing him. Plus his previous rape conviction if his sentence is still current ( I have no idea whether this US sentence was commuted at 20 years or if he was deported under terms of being * out on licence * )

 

[Rusty Braincells]

Thank goodness for that. Obviously guilty all along and wasting everyone’s time, dragging it out through trial.

I’d post the words I have in mind for these “parents”, but I’d rather avoid a ban so simply to say, IMO an entirely correct and foreseeable verdict, and RIP Victoria. I hope and pray this couple’s other children are happy, healthy and safe well away from the pair of them.

 

[Sherlockhames]

That puts rather a different light on things. I didn't realise that it was a first floor window and that she'd fallen six metres! She's lucky to be alive.

I can’t understand how she kept going back to him and having more children. It’s not like she wasn’t given ample opportunity to escape (by family, local authorities etc). I know a lot of people immediately suggested coercive control but she has gone out of their way to repeatedly deny that is the case - for years. I suspect everyone she has come into contact with has suspected it given he is such a nasty piece of work. Did she just want to prove everyone wrong? Was her relationship with her family so broken she could reconcile? Or is she just as much of a narcissist/psychopath as him? Beginning to suspect the latter - but being thrown out of a window and left to bleed out! What was she thinking?

 

[CaptainNancy]

Another restriction lifted:

They can report judgements from the Family Court.

 

[Bluebear15]

I hope he gets a life sentence with a high minimum tariff, and she gets a long term too. They both deserve it.

 

[Skigh]

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon guilty of killing their newborn baby

Police launched a nationwide hunt for the couple after they went on the run with their daughter Victoria to stop social services from taking her away.

news.sky.com

Judge Mark Lucraft KC suggested Marten may have made a "deliberate attempt" to "scupper" the retrial when she dramatically revealed Gordon's "violent rape conviction" in the US after he attacked a woman when he was a teenager.

Gordon's barrister said the evidence was so prejudicial the jury should be discharged only for his client to change his mind when he realised he would have to stand trial without his partner next year.


Marten then said she wanted to "sack" her KC, the 15th lawyer she had parted company with, but was still represented by a junior barrister, while Gordon's lawyers withdrew and he represented himself.

He asked for a copy of the 3,500-page legal textbook Archbold, which covers the entirety of the criminal law in England and Wales, and at one point, the judge said: "Do you want me to adjourn for three years while you do a law degree?"

 

[Alyce]

Another restriction lifted:

They can report judgements from the Family Court.

Oh that will be interesting

 

[Rusty Braincells]

I can’t understand how she kept going back to him and having more children. It’s not like she wasn’t given ample opportunity to escape (by family, local authorities etc). I know a lot of people immediately suggested coercive control but she has gone out of their way to repeatedly deny that is the case - for years. I suspect everyone she has come into contact with has suspected it given he is such a nasty piece of work. Did she just want to prove everyone wrong? Was her relationship with her family so broken she could reconcile? Or is she just as much of a narcissist/psychopath as him? Beginning to suspect the latter - but being thrown out of a window and left to bleed out! What was she thinking?

IMO, Constance decided that Mark, and what Mark wanted, was paramount. Some of what was going on in her mind was no doubt down to coercive control, but all the same, Constance repeatedly chose Mark over her own children. It was open to her to leave him and, quite possibly, had she elected to live without him, she might have been allowed to keep all of her children.

I have sympathy for her as an abuse victim, but my sympathy stops when it becomes clear she chose Mark and their “relationship” over the safety and well-being of her kids. The history shows this. Why she did that, I don’t know, but it’s possible to me that the reason was a selfish one, not about being a victim.

 

[CatsnChickens]

Stockholm syndrome springs to mind with this one

 

[Skigh]

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon guilty of gross negligence manslaughter over baby's death

Victoria's body was found in a shopping bag in a Brighton allotment shed in March 2023, two months after the couple went on the run.

www.bbc.co.uk

Couple expected to be sentenced in Septemberpublished at 15:04
15:04​

The judge tells lawyers involved in the case that preparations for a sentencing hearing should be completed by 1 September, ahead of a hearing on 15 September.

 

[Skigh]

From bbc article posted above:

Mark Gordon is a dangerous "psychopath" who should have been locked up for life as a child, an American woman he raped 36 years ago has told the BBC.

Gordon was jailed for attacking his neighbour at knifepoint in Miami when he was aged 14 and BBC News has now obtained US court papers revealing the shocking nature of the crimes.

He was sentenced to 40 years in prison and, after serving 20 years, was deported back to the UK. Gordon has always maintained his rape conviction was unlawful.

For legal reasons, the jury at Gordon and Marten's first Old Bailey trial was not told Gordon had been convicted of rape in 1989 but details emerged during the retrial.

BBC News can reveal the full details of the brutal assault, having obtained court documents from his sentencing hearing at Broward County Courthouse, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1990.

• You can read the full BBC News investigation into Mark Gordon here. Warning: The story contains depictions of a violent sexual attack

 

[jackal67]

No wonder he didn't want that part of his history being revealed.

And incredible that C stayed with him and had two more children. All that money, all that good education doesn't seem to have provided her with the necessary common sense.

Incredible indeed and she still stayed with him after he threw her from a window!! Had another 2 children with him!
Why wasnt he prosecuted for that ?? Wonder the children werent removed there and then. Was he looking after them when she was in hospital?
I find it strange her not knowing about his criminal history? Thought he had to report to a Police station weekly?