GUILTY UK - Constance Marten & Mark Gordon charged in death of baby Victoria, Guilty on counts 1 & 5, 2025 retrial on manslaughter, 5 Jan 2023 #8

[Alyce]

IMo .. Manhunt started AFTER they started running.

More confirmation on that point, from today's reporting.....



It was after their car caught fire in January 2023 that police realised the couple had another baby, leading to detectives launching a public appeal for the couple.

Mark Gordon blames baby's death on police manhunt, court hears

Gordon, 50, gives evidence for the first time in his retrial over the death of his newborn daughter.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Alyce]

Today's full schedule


www.thelawpages.com

 

[Alyce]

Representing himself after his barrister withdrew from the case, Gordon earlier denied he had an underprivileged upbringing, saying: “Everybody faces challenges in life.”
He told jurors his mother was a hard-working nurse who was passionate and empathetic and had instilled those values in him.
He said: “The idea I was underprivileged was not the case. My mother had two or three houses. She always provided for us. She showed me empathy.


On his reason for giving evidence, Gordon said: “I did not want to take the stand but I felt it was imperative I tell the jury what happened in this case, hopefully resolve issues.

Constance Marten’s partner blames police for death of baby

Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 50 are charged with the manslaughter of their baby daughter Victoria who died in a tent on the South Downs in early 2023.

www.standard.co.uk

 

[Skigh]

Representing himself after his barrister withdrew from the case, Gordon earlier denied he had an underprivileged upbringing, saying: “Everybody faces challenges in life.”
He told jurors his mother was a hard-working nurse who was passionate and empathetic and had instilled those values in him.
He said: “The idea I was underprivileged was not the case. My mother had two or three houses. She always provided for us. She showed me empathy.


On his reason for giving evidence, Gordon said: “I did not want to take the stand but I felt it was imperative I tell the jury what happened in this case, hopefully resolve issues.

Constance Marten’s partner blames police for death of baby

Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 50 are charged with the manslaughter of their baby daughter Victoria who died in a tent on the South Downs in early 2023.

www.standard.co.uk

On his reason for giving evidence, Gordon said: “I did not want to take the stand but I felt it was imperative I tell the jury what happened in this case, hopefully resolve issues.


How extremely noble of him.

 

[Skigh]

I imagine every court officials alcohol consumption will have dramatically increased during the last few weeks!!
Can't imagine how they control themselves having to listen to this self indulgent twaddle.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

Was there a “manhunt” before the burning car?
IIRC … the couple with a newborn abandoned their car … Leaving behind a placenta wrapped in a towel (conclusion that CM gave birth IN the car), leaving behind possessions and a pet cat in a carrier and walked away w babe in arms on highway.

Is it correct behavior after burning car prompted the manhunt … ?

There was no manhunt before the burning car.
Can anyone confirm when the manhunt started… if after burning car, LE had no choice but to try find them because their behavior at &after car fire high risk for baby. That coupled with other children being removed.

I think maybe you’ve misunderstood my point. That’s what I wrote. That the reckless and high risk behaviour was in evidence prior the manhunt.

JMO MOO

 

[CaptainNancy]

"He told jurors his mother was a hard-working nurse who was passionate and empathetic and had instilled those values in him".

Speechless.

Given the context that is currently inadmissible in court.

How can he stand there and SAY that.

 

[Observe_dont_Absorb]

IMo .. Manhunt started AFTER they started running.

I’m sure everyone is in accord on this issue. Plus it can literally be proven… so it was just that a poster misinterpreted or misunderstood my post. I find it a little irritating when people do that as it slightly derails the thread and creates a thread of redundant responses IMO JMO

 

[jackal67]

ISTR a report that when MG signed on at one of the police stations (not sure whether it was the 19 Dec Sheffield sign-on or the 26 Dec Leeds one) a note was filed that there was a suspicion that CM might be pregnant. I looked for this report again but couldn't find it. There's been no suggestion that she went to the police station with him on either occasion, so the implication is that her absence from the authorities' view over a period of time had been noted and that an eye was being kept out. Otherwise why would she be a person of interest? JMO.

We dont know that she wasnt at the police station with him though she could well have been as they are seldom apart

 

[rockthecasbah]

We are not silly people. We are not irresponsible people.


as always, there's more at the link

Mark Gordon blames baby's death on police manhunt, court hears

Gordon, 50, gives evidence for the first time in his retrial over the death of his newborn daughter.

www.bbc.co.uk

Who had 4 kids removed.

 

[Skigh]

Who had 4 kids removed.

The defendants.

 

[Alyce]

"He told jurors his mother was a hard-working nurse who was passionate and empathetic and had instilled those values in him".

Speechless.

Given the context that is currently inadmissible in court.

How can he stand there and SAY that.

Post trial media reports could be interesting…dependent on the verdicts of course.

 

[rockthecasbah]

The defendants.

It wasn't a question.

"We are not irresponsible people"...but they had 4 kids removed

 

[Skigh]

It wasn't a question.

"We are not irresponsible people"...but they had 4 kids removed

Sorry ,I misinterpreted your post!

 

[Baby baby Jane]

I think maybe you’ve misunderstood my point. That’s what I wrote. That the reckless and high risk behaviour was in evidence prior the manhunt.

JMO MOO

Yes, agree …
I was responding to MG really, the manhunt was in response to their risky & irresponsible behavior at the burning car ….

MG saying that LE should have just shrugged and done nothing … because they should have known that doing nothing was best for baby

 

[Alyce]

Gordon gave evidence in chief by replying to questions from Judge Mark Lucraft KC because his own barristers have withdrawn from the case. He wore a formal blue shirt with the top button fastened and a peach-coloured durag wrapped around his head.
“I did not want to take the stand but I thought it was imperative to talk to you 12 members of the jury … for the 12 members of the jury to understand what was happening,” he said.

Constance Marten’s partner tells trial: ‘We’d have died for our baby’

Mark Gordon and Constance Marten wept in court as he described the death of their daughter Victoria while on the run

www.thetimes.com

 

[choc drop]

Of course many parents co-sleep, and many mothers fall asleep while breastfeeding.

In five years' time, the advice might change to pro co-sleeping. It's probably pro co-sleeping now in some countries. Half the world can't afford separate sleeping space anyway, so I don't imagine the advice in all countries is anti co-sleeping. I was advised to put my newborn to sleep face up, whereas in the recent past the advice had been that it was fine or even preferable to put newborns to sleep face down. A case of "Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia". Although to the midwife's credit she did say the advice had changed to its complete opposite. She also made me listen to a lecture saying not to smoke, when nobody in the house had ever smoked and nobody was allowed to smoke in the house or near the baby, as I told her. But the rules are the rules. "I'm just doing my job", etc. (She didn't say that. I didn't say anything either, after I'd told her that even if she was going to advise me that smoking was okay I still wouldn't do it!)

The prosecution's citing things such as that CM was advised not to co-sleep, as every single mother of a newborn who comes into contact with the medical system is advised (as much of the population knows), that she put her baby into a buggy wearing a babygrow, and that she got wet when it was raining, makes the crown's case in favour of a conviction for the very serious crime of manslaughter seem terribly weak. IMO.

Justice for Victoria will mean an inquiry that looks into why her parents were chased and prosecuted and what effects on other families have resulted from the same causes. IMO

We know what kind of parents these two were, Babie FF,GG &HH were removed from their care after an incident of domestic violence Constance Marten and Mark Gordon trial: Four children taken into care

 

[Cardgame]

It wasn't a question.

"We are not irresponsible people"...but they had 4 kids removed

Two people who are apparently totally incapable of accepting any accountability for their actions, who join together as one to blame everyone else for their own shortcomings and missteps. They certainly do seem to be well suited, and it is psychologically fascinating IMO that neither has turned on the other during the trial. IMO if it had truly been an act of madness, brought on under the pressure of the police manhunt, then time to reflect would have made them realize that they were - at least partially - responsible. 'We shouldn't have run away,' they would say. But instead they act as though anyone in their right mind when caught in a fire on a motorway with a newborn would have gone on the run and ended up in a tent, hiding their baby's body in a bag of rubbish. IMO this is a horrible miscalculation and surely no jury will be convinced, whether MG gives his side of the story or not. Nothing he says can explain what they did because they are lying. Your number one thought, when the baby is still warm, is DIAL 999. Do everything within your power to save the baby. They didn't do this, for reasons they cannot explain and haven't even tried to explain. JMO.

 

[Maltesepuppy]

He said: “At one point I remarked to my wife we should all go together on a pyre with the baby.
“It’s a horrible thing to be seen like we are being seen, like monsters.

Appealing to the jury, he said: “We will have to live with this forever. We punished ourselves day in, day out, for that for two years. What more do you want.”

He added: “There was no plan to go and live in the forest or live in the woods.
It was somewhere to sleep for the night, nothing more than that.
“We decided we can do that for a day and then we can find somewhere more stable.”
But inside the tent, conditions were “satisfactory for a night’s stay” and they were neither damp nor wet as they kept the baby close.



more...much more....at the link

https://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/national/25181794.constance-martens-partner-suggested-go-together-pyre-baby-death/

Appealing to the jury, he said: “We will have to live with this forever"

Well, at least you get to live you self centred, narcissistic individual! Unlike poor Victoria, whose life was miserable and cut so short.


"It was a safe environment, for us, we would put ourselves out to ensure the baby’s wellbeing.”

Is he for real? Is he trying to present themselves as the ultimate self-sacrificing martyrs? Because nothing says safety and wellbeing like a cold tent where Victoria lost her life.

Everytime any of these 2 open their mouths they disgust me more.
The degree of narcicism; self-pity; concern for how they are perceived; the constant reminders of how things impacted THEM; the self-congratulatory comments about what great parents they were and the overall lack of remorse and empathy for Victoria makes me enraged.

It's just as well I wasn't part of the jury. I would have had to be restrained.

JMO MOO

 

[Maltesepuppy]

Representing himself after his barrister withdrew from the case, Gordon earlier denied he had an underprivileged upbringing, saying: “Everybody faces challenges in life.”
He told jurors his mother was a hard-working nurse who was passionate and empathetic and had instilled those values in him.
He said: “The idea I was underprivileged was not the case. My mother had two or three houses. She always provided for us. She showed me empathy.


On his reason for giving evidence, Gordon said: “I did not want to take the stand but I felt it was imperative I tell the jury what happened in this case, hopefully resolve issues.

Constance Marten’s partner blames police for death of baby

Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 50 are charged with the manslaughter of their baby daughter Victoria who died in a tent on the South Downs in early 2023.

www.standard.co.uk

BBM

I guess those empathetic values took a journey to the moon when he was violently assaulting the woman and elderly neighbours.
He wasn't feeling that empathetic either when his daughter's body was decomposing under rubbish and all he cared about was his damn mayo.

Do these people have any insight at all?

JMO MOO