Constance Marten and Mark Gordon jailed for 14 years each after killing their newborn daughter

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been jailed for a total of 28 years after they were convicted of killing their baby.

Marten, 38, who is from a wealthy family, and her partner Gordon, 51, were each handed sentences of 14 years at the Old Bailey on Monday.

As it happened: Judge condemns 'shameful conduct' of couple

They went on the run with their newborn daughter, Victoria, to get away from social services after their four other children were taken into care.

Victoria's body was found with rubbish inside a Lidl shopping bag in the corner of an allotment in Brighton on 1 March 2023.

The pair had been the subject of a nationwide manhunt for 54 days.

Read more:
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'No genuine expression of remorse'

Judge Mark Lucraft told the pair during sentencing that "neither of you gave much or any thought to the care or welfare of your baby".

"Your focus was on yourselves," he said, before adding: "There has been no genuine expression of remorse from either of you.

"Whilst there have been expressions of sorrow about the death throughout, you've adopted the stance of seeking to blame everyone else other than yourselves for what happened."

Sky's home affairs reporter Henry Vaughan reported that neither showed much emotion during sentencing, and that after they stood up, Gordon stared at Marten as she left the dock.

They were both convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence following a second trial at the Old Bailey.

They had previously been found guilty of perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, and child cruelty after an Old Bailey trial lasting almost five months.

A second trial was ordered after the first jury failed to reach a verdict on the manslaughter charges.

Marten is now seeking permission to appeal against her conviction for manslaughter. A previous application to appeal against her conviction for cruelty to a child was rejected in February this year.

Both trials were hampered by disruption and delays, taking up more than 33 weeks of court time, which - at an estimated cost of £30,000 per defendant a day - could have cost in the region of £10m.

A search for Marten and Gordon was launched after a placenta was found in the couple's burnt-out car on a motorway in Bolton in January 2023.

Marten said they went on the run so their fifth child would not be removed from them after her other children were "stolen by the state".

The couple spent vast sums of cash from her family trust fund on taxi journeys as they travelled from Bolton, to Liverpool, to Harwich in Essex, to London and then to Newhaven on the south coast.

Baby's clothing inadequate, judge says

Prosecutors said the baby was inadequately clothed in a babygrow and that Marten had got wet as she carried the infant underneath her coat, alleging Victoria died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping.

Judge Lucraft said that while Marten and Gordon claimed they wanted dignity for Victoria's body, their "conduct showed the opposite".

He also said the baby had died by 12 January 2023, and that the couple then concealed her and perverted the course of justice before her "decomposed body" was found.

"When you were arrested," the court heard, "neither of you was willing to give any assistance to the police about the whereabouts of your daughter's body.

"Your silence at that stage of events is highly significant."

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Gordon previously convicted

During the second trial, the court partly heard of Gordon's criminal history: In 1989, at 14 years old, he held a woman against her will in Florida for more than four hours and raped her while armed with a knife and hedge clippers.

He entered another property and carried out another offence involving aggravated battery within a month.

Gordon - who moved to the US with his mother at 12 years old - was sentenced to 40 years in prison and was released after 22 years.

He was also convicted of assaulting two female police officers at a maternity unit in Wales in 2017, where Marten gave birth to their first child under a fake identity.

The court did not hear that Gordon was also suspected of an incident of domestic violence in 2019, which left Marten with a shattered spleen.

During legal argument, it emerged that Gordon refused to allow paramedics into their London flat to treat her after she fell out of a window when she was 14 weeks pregnant.

It was alleged that Marten spent eight days in hospital, then attempted to discharge herself with Gordon's support.

After that incident, a family court decided their other children should be taken into care.

'No child should have had its life cut short'

Met Police Detective Chief Inspector Joanna Yorke, who led the investigation, said the couple's "selfish actions" resulted in the death of Victoria, "who would have recently had her second birthday and should have had the rest of her life ahead of her".

She added: "We know today's sentencing won't bring Victoria back, but I am pleased our investigation has resulted in the couple who caused her death finally being brought to justice."

The Crown Prosecution Service's Jaswant Narwal, chief Crown prosecutor, added that Marten and Gordon "used different antics to frustrate and delay court proceedings, doing everything in their power to try and delay facing responsibility for their actions".

"No child should have had its life cut short in this preventable way," she said.

"I hope today's sentences provide a sense of justice and comfort to all those affected by this tragic case."

(c) Sky News 2025: Constance Marten and Mark Gordon jailed for 14 years each after killing their newborn daugh