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

[Alyce]

Hooked on violent p o rn o g r a p h y, Gordon was 14 when he raped a woman at knifepoint in 1989 after breaking into her home armed with knives and hedge clippers, telling her: ‘Don’t scream or I’ll kill your children.’

Over the next four and half hours, the teenage rapist tormented his victim, telling her she was going to die as he ran the blade down her body, holding it to her throat and heart saying: ‘All I have to do is push and you are dead.’
The mother recalled: ‘I had no hope. I was told to say goodbye to my children because this was the day I was going to die.
‘When I thought he might be going to leave, he said “No, your nightmare isn’t over yet”.’

Franklin Nooe (corr), treatment director of a sex assault clinic who counselled Gordon’s first victim, described Gordon as a sociopath in the same category as Ted Bundy: ‘That’s the 5 per cent of the rapists, that’s your Ted Bundys, your wilders that obviously enjoy it. It is something that actually fuels them.
‘They are a progressive kind of rapist that would lead to, I would expect, to go from just raping, to raping and murdering’.

Within three weeks of carrying out the attack, Gordon broke into the home of a second woman armed with a set of knives.But as he crept into her bedroom, placing two seven-inch knives outside the door, Gordon was startled to find her husband home.ordon battered him around the head with a shovel before fleeing in panic.

He hid his appalling criminal history from Marten when they met in 2016, keeping it secret until after they had a spiritual marriage in Peru and had their first child together
It wasn't until he assaulted two police officers in hospital after Marten gave birth under a false name that she learnt he was a violent rapist considered at 'high risk' of reoffending

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon found guilty of killing daughter

Runaway aristocrat Constance Marten and her lover Mark Gordon have been today convicted of killing their baby, Victoria.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Alyce]

Two years before the death of Victoria, District Judge Madeleine Reardon warned: ‘It is much more likely than not that in the foreseeable future the children will be exposed to serious physical violence between their parents.
‘It is quite possible that they will be injured themselves.’

In a scandal which raises questions about the legal aid system, Marten was granted taxpayer funding for her defence despite her huge wealth.

She attempted to claim a raft of benefits, including child benefits for her elder children after they had already been taken into care, and demanded to be given a council house after turning down a home in London paid for by her trust fund.

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon found guilty of killing daughter

Runaway aristocrat Constance Marten and her lover Mark Gordon have been today convicted of killing their baby, Victoria.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[jackal67]

Hooked on violent p o rn o g r a p h y, Gordon was 14 when he raped a woman at knifepoint in 1989 after breaking into her home armed with knives and hedge clippers, telling her: ‘Don’t scream or I’ll kill your children.’

Over the next four and half hours, the teenage rapist tormented his victim, telling her she was going to die as he ran the blade down her body, holding it to her throat and heart saying: ‘All I have to do is push and you are dead.’
The mother recalled: ‘I had no hope. I was told to say goodbye to my children because this was the day I was going to die.
‘When I thought he might be going to leave, he said “No, your nightmare isn’t over yet”.’

Franklin Nooe (corr), treatment director of a sex assault clinic who counselled Gordon’s first victim, described Gordon as a sociopath in the same category as Ted Bundy: ‘That’s the 5 per cent of the rapists, that’s your Ted Bundys, your wilders that obviously enjoy it. It is something that actually fuels them.
‘They are a progressive kind of rapist that would lead to, I would expect, to go from just raping, to raping and murdering’.

Within three weeks of carrying out the attack, Gordon broke into the home of a second woman armed with a set of knives.But as he crept into her bedroom, placing two seven-inch knives outside the door, Gordon was startled to find her husband home.ordon battered him around the head with a shovel before fleeing in panic.

He hid his appalling criminal history from Marten when they met in 2016, keeping it secret until after they had a spiritual marriage in Peru and had their first child together
It wasn't until he assaulted two police officers in hospital after Marten gave birth under a false name that she learnt he was a violent rapist considered at 'high risk' of reoffending

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon found guilty of killing daughter

Runaway aristocrat Constance Marten and her lover Mark Gordon have been today convicted of killing their baby, Victoria.

www.dailymail.co.uk

I think she pretended to not know as it would have made her look even worse to SS and they may have removed 1st baby instead of putting her in a mother and baby placement

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

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 seem to recall it was described as one of those windows that's in the first floor landing at the top of stairs in a traditional style Victorian house. A single pane glass window with a low sill. Maybe wrong. JMO

 

[Sherlockhames]

I’ve found the CM interview referred to in the Daily Mail reporting and which was no doubt the subject of some delay as the judge/lawyers debated whether this would derail the trial (I bet CM referred to it bringing it to the jury’s attention! !

(Also - presumably as the publication is based outside the UK they can’t be sued/held in contempt of court for publication in the same way MSM in the UK would be?)

The View Issue 13 Spring 2025 Digital Edition

Issue 13 of The View is a promise — of survival for the planet and for women. It sheds light on the ongoing injustices women face in the legal system. At Bronzefield Prison, run by Sodexo Ltd, one woman suing the company for stealing her property was punished by being denied photocopying of...

theviewmag.org.uk

(I’m not paying £5 to download it though!)

I presume these are the campaigners who were outside court and supporting her each day? What a nightmare for the judge!

 

[jackal67]

Ultimately it seems that CM is his victim but she's got so far lost along the way she became a victim and perpetrator. Now this is over, I hope she can be reached and rehabilitated somehow because intellectually I know that this is the most extreme form of abuse and exploitation that a violent man can do to a partner. On an emotional level it's good to know she can't harm her offspring any more. If she can ever tell the truth then she's got a powerful story that could act as a lesson and deterrent to others. JMO MOO

Sorry disagree. I do not see her as a victim at all. She had ample means to remove herself and most importantly her children from this man. The pair of them disgust me.
Thank god the other children are safe JMO

 

[bmacmillan1]

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon found guilty of killing daughter

Runaway aristocrat Constance Marten and her lover Mark Gordon have been today convicted of killing their baby, Victoria.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Moments after being convicted, Gordon angrily shouted from the dock: 'I'm not surprised by the verdict. It was faulty, it was unlawful. This is not over, it has just begun.'


Following two trials, costing taxpayers an estimated £1.6million, it can now be revealed that:

• A national safeguarding panel is now looking at the landmark case as police have called for new laws to protect unborn children;
• The couple were granted legal aid for their defence, hiring 18 lawyers to defend them at an estimated cost of £600,000 - yet she is a trust fund heiress worth £2.4million;
• Gordon attempted to avoid trial, claiming he was more notorious than Wayne Couzens, the Scotland Yard police firearms officer who murdered Sarah Everard.

He is dangerous and needs to stay in prison

 

[Alyce]

I’ve found CM interview

The View Issue 13 Spring 2025 Digital Edition

Issue 13 of The View is a promise — of survival for the planet and for women. It sheds light on the ongoing injustices women face in the legal system. At Bronzefield Prison, run by Sodexo Ltd, one woman suing the company for stealing her property was punished by being denied photocopying of...

theviewmag.org.uk

(I’m not paying £5 to download it though!)

I presume these are the people who have outside court and supporting her each day?

There's an audio link ( which is free ) but am not sure if I can post it here -

 

[Sherlockhames]

I’ve found CM interview

The View Issue 13 Spring 2025 Digital Edition

Issue 13 of The View is a promise — of survival for the planet and for women. It sheds light on the ongoing injustices women face in the legal system. At Bronzefield Prison, run by Sodexo Ltd, one woman suing the company for stealing her property was punished by being denied photocopying of...

theviewmag.org.uk

(I’m not paying £5 to download it though!)

I presume these are the people who have outside court and supporting her each day?

This podcast link looks like it contains the transcript to the interview in the magazine.

(Not sure I am allowed to post it so have removed the link, but you can find the podcast if you want to read her complaints about the remand system in her own words).

 

[Skigh]

How Constance Marten and Mark Gordon tried to 'sabotage' their trial

The conditions were 'freezing', the food 'inadequate' and the days long, sometimes 19 hours with little or no rest.

www.dailymail.co.uk

In a bid to sway jurors midway through her prosecution, Marten gave a magazine interview headlined 'Surviving Serco', complaining her trial was 'prejudiced' by the 'inhumane' conditions she endured behind bars.

In an accompanying podcast which proclaimed, 'this is the very foundation of a fair trial being undermined', Marten bemoaned the long journeys to court in transport provided by private contractor Serco and 'disgusting' microwave meals in her 'stone-cold' Old Bailey cell.

'I'm being made to survive these 17 to 19-hour days with little or no rest, no food,' she said, without a hint of irony.

Marten also breached a High Court anonymity order by providing photographs of her older children to the magazine, risking prosecution for contempt of court.

at times, Marten was so rude to the Recorder of London, Judge Mark Lucraft, that he had to banish her to the cells.

At one point she contemptuously said of his legal directions: 'Are they going to be better than last year? I've got very little respect for you.'

The long-suffering judge declared that the defendants were behaving worse than two teenagers charged with murder with their continual 'antics' to 'deliberately sabotage the trial'.

'I've sat as a full-time judge now for 13 years and I've never had that sort of attitude by anybody,' he said.

'I've tolerated a lot of unpleasant behaviour. This is a court of law – dignity must be shown.'

 

[Alyce]

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon's failures as parents are revealed by damning court papers, which have been released to BBC News.

A years-long family court case ended in January 2022 when their four children were permanently placed into care.

Family court proceedings began in south Wales, where the couple's first baby was born, and continued in London, when Marten and Gordon moved there.

The papers reveal:

• Gordon did not call 999 after Marten fell from the window and he refused to let paramedics into their home to treat her
• Afterwards, Marten, pregnant with their third child, fled to Ireland to avoid contact with social services
• The couple put their children's health at risk by refusing standard antenatal and newborn healthcare
• Once their older children were in care, they repeatedly missed contact sessions with them
• Faced with permanently losing her children, Marten told a court she would separate from Gordon in a desperate bid to keep them - but the judge did not believe her

Marten and Gordon - a convicted rapist - returned from travelling around South America in June 2017. She was four months pregnant with their first child.

***The pair had travelled through a country during an outbreak of the Zika virus - which can affect a baby's development - and the London hospital where Marten attended antenatal appointments became concerned. But Marten missed at least two more check-ups and then disappeared.
The hospital was worried enough to put out a "national alert". Marten's family also hired a private detective to find her.

Court papers reveal Constance Marten and Mark Gordon’s failures as parents

A years-long court case, which ended with the couple's four children being taken into care, can now be reported.

www.bbc.co.uk

*** That explains why the hospital were so concerned to find CM.

 

[jackal67]

How Constance Marten and Mark Gordon tried to 'sabotage' their trial

The conditions were 'freezing', the food 'inadequate' and the days long, sometimes 19 hours with little or no rest.

www.dailymail.co.uk

In a bid to sway jurors midway through her prosecution, Marten gave a magazine interview headlined 'Surviving Serco', complaining her trial was 'prejudiced' by the 'inhumane' conditions she endured behind bars.

In an accompanying podcast which proclaimed, 'this is the very foundation of a fair trial being undermined', Marten bemoaned the long journeys to court in transport provided by private contractor Serco and 'disgusting' microwave meals in her 'stone-cold' Old Bailey cell.

'I'm being made to survive these 17 to 19-hour days with little or no rest, no food,' she said, without a hint of irony.

Marten also breached a High Court anonymity order by providing photographs of her older children to the magazine, risking prosecution for contempt of court.

at times, Marten was so rude to the Recorder of London, Judge Mark Lucraft, that he had to banish her to the cells.

At one point she contemptuously said of his legal directions: 'Are they going to be better than last year? I've got very little respect for you.'

The long-suffering judge declared that the defendants were behaving worse than two teenagers charged with murder with their continual 'antics' to 'deliberately sabotage the trial'.

'I've sat as a full-time judge now for 13 years and I've never had that sort of attitude by anybody,' he said.

'I've tolerated a lot of unpleasant behaviour. This is a court of law – dignity must be shown.'

How was she even allowed to do this magazine interview ? ? It beggars belief really

 

[Alyce]

In the first court judgment, made by District Judge Taylor at Swansea Family Court in July 2018, a psychiatrist warned that Gordon had "the capacity to act in a violent manner", and could be violent when under stress.

He spent the initial weeks of their first baby's life in Cardiff prison, while Marten stayed with families in a series of mother and baby placements.

When Gordon was released, Marten travelled to visit him in London, leaving the newborn behind for 17 hours.

"There are some concerns that on occasions these parents prioritise their own relationship over [their baby's] needs," Judge Taylor recorded. Similar phrases crop up time and again throughout the 84 pages of court documents

Court papers reveal Constance Marten and Mark Gordon’s failures as parents

A years-long court case, which ended with the couple's four children being taken into care, can now be reported.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Alyce]

The night of 21 November 2019 a neighbour was woken by screaming in the early hours of the morning. When he looked outside, he saw Marten falling from a first-floor window and landing on a car.

According to the judgments, Gordon did not call 999, but someone else did. When paramedics arrived, Marten was inside the house screaming: "Help me, help me."

Marten spent eight days in hospital being treated for a shattered spleen and lacerations to a kidney. She was 14 weeks pregnant, but the baby survived.

Gordon told police officers he and Marten had both fallen out of the window while trying to fix the TV aerial, but they remained suspicious.

When Marten left hospital, social workers wanted to talk to her, but she fled with her two children to a hotel in Ireland. She was eventually persuaded to return, a month later. The two children were removed from her on arrival, and she has never got them back.

Court papers reveal Constance Marten and Mark Gordon’s failures as parents

A years-long court case, which ended with the couple's four children being taken into care, can now be reported.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[choc drop]

""The strong impression given by the parents is that of two people who are fiercely united in an unrelenting struggle against a non-existent opponent," she said."

Court papers reveal Constance Marten and Mark Gordon’s failures as parents

A years-long court case, which ended with the couple's four children being taken into care, can now be reported.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Deleted member 367833]

"In a scandal which raises questions about the legal aid system, Marten was granted taxpayer funding for her defence despite her huge wealth."

^ From the Daily Mail.

In actual fact, legal aid is means tested:

Criminal legal aid: means testing

Determine financial eligibility for legal aid: check household income, calculate living costs, enforcement action, apply for hardship or eligibility review.

www.gov.uk

 

[bmacmillan1]

Will they be able to communicate once sentenced and incarcerated? They will no doubt try to find a way.
I'm just hoping he will be involved in some violent incident that he causes in prison and is killed. I think that would be the only way to finally severe the cords between them ..

 

[Alyce]

The seeds for Marten’s doomed relationship with Gordon were sown years earlier when she spent several months living at a Christian cult in Lagos in 2006.

In September 2006, Marten decided to join her mother Virginie de Selliers on a Holy Trinity Brompton church trip to Lagos, where she opted to stay on. She is said to have stayed until December that year, when her mother became concerned.

Ms De Selliers is said to be a long standing parishioner at the high profile Anglican church in South Kensington, where so called ‘Alpha’ conversion courses were first developed

How Constance Marten fell from society darling to being jailed for killing her baby

Complex family rift and a deep distrust of the authorities helped to drive Constance Marten off-grid with her rapist partner Mark Gordon, reports Amy-Clare Martin

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Deleted member 367833]

In the first court judgment, made by District Judge Taylor at Swansea Family Court in July 2018, a psychiatrist warned that Gordon had "the capacity to act in a violent manner", and could be violent when under stress.

He spent the initial weeks of their first baby's life in Cardiff prison, while Marten stayed with families in a series of mother and baby placements.

When Gordon was released, Marten travelled to visit him in London, leaving the newborn behind for 17 hours.

Why could he not have done the travelling? Possible answers include curfew and sign-on.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Sorry disagree. I do not see her as a victim at all. She had ample means to remove herself and most importantly her children from this man. The pair of them disgust me.
Thank god the other children are safe JMO

IKWYM but she must have lost her mind surely? We know she was not always thus and we know that he had this offence since his teens so the person who was a sick, evil, violent, predator was definitely him. She must have been mentally corrupted by him because she surely did not start out like that? The fact she had such wealth, privilege, means, goes to prove the level of brainwashing, en-training, power and hold he had over her. It is said that people who fall into cults but escape are far more likely to also fall into cults again or be victims of con artists in the future than the average person because it's an emotional vulnerability that defies logic and experience. JMO MOO

Whatever happened to CM, goes without my first and foremost thought is that there should be justice for the baby and this sentence is the right thing.