Constance Marten and Mark Gordon Face Retrial Over Baby Death

Mark Gordon and Constance Marten in this handout combination photo provided on Jan. 18, 2023. (Metropolitan Police via AP)

LONDON—A couple whose newborn baby died after they went “off-grid” to hide the pregnancy from social services face a retrial for gross negligence manslaughter in March 2025.

It can also be reported for the first time that Constance Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, 49, were both convicted of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the court of justice by the jury at the Old Bailey last week.

On Wednesday the Recorder of London, Judge Mark Lucraft, KC, lifted reporting restrictions which prevented the reporting of the partial verdicts at the end of the trial.

Last week Judge Lucraft discharged the jury which had deliberated for 72 hours and 33 minutes but was unable to reach a verdict on the charge of gross negligence manslaughter.

He thanked the jurors for their “extraordinary” public service and “dedication” and excused them from jury service for the rest of their lives.

On Wednesday, Judge Lucraft said the second trial would not be able to start until March 2025, which was the earliest date available to the court.

‘Huge Backlog’ of Trials

He told the defence counsel there was still a “huge backlog” of trials, partly as a knock-on effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, and he said while the Old Bailey had, “caught up significantly” it would not be able to bring the case to trial again until next spring.

Their first trial began in January and when she gave evidence Marten said they even considered paying people traffickers to smuggle the child abroad.

Marten and Gordon had been in a relationship since 2016 and Victoria was their fifth child.

Prosecutor Tom Little, KC, told the jury the other four had all been taken into care so Marten and Gordon decided to keep their latest pregnancy a secret and go “off-grid.”

The jury heard the baby—who the couple called Victoria—died while they were camping in the Sussex countryside in January and February 2023 as temperatures hovering around freezing point.

The prosecution claimed Victoria died of hypothermia but the couple claimed she died accidentally after Marten fell asleep on top of her. A post-mortem examination report was unable to confirm the cause of death.

Marten and Gordon were arrested on the outskirts of Brighton on Feb. 27, 2023, and a few days later the body of Victoria was found in an allotment shed. She had been left, covered in rubbish, in a red Lidl bag-for-life.

During the trial, Marten claimed the cars breaking down was suspicious and accused private detectives acting on behalf of her parents of having “detonated” them.

Court artist sketch of Constance Marten being questioned by her barrister Francis FitzGibbon KC at the Old Bailey, central London, on March 7, 2024. (Elizabeth Cook/PA Wire)

They rented a holiday cottage in Northumberland over Christmas 2022 but their car broke down on the motorway in Yorkshire. They bought another car but this one also broke down and then caught fire on the M61 near Bolton, Greater Manchester, on Jan. 5, 2023.

The couple fled to Liverpool and then paid a taxi driver £400 in cash to take them to Harwich in Essex but after less than 24 hours there they moved on, via London, to the Sussex countryside.

Camped in ‘Freezing Conditions’

They then camped for almost two months in “freezing conditions” on the South Downs before finally being spotted on the outskirts of Brighton.

After they were arrested Marten and Gordon refused to cooperate with police or tell them the whereabouts of their child.

The prosecution said Victoria, who was described on the indictment as Child A, was believed to have been born sometime on Dec. 28, 2022, and died sometime after Jan. 8, 2023.

There was disagreement among medical experts about how and when she died, with the prosecution claiming it was much later than the defence’s case.

PA Media contributed to this report.