Fugitive pair guilty of killing their baby

ARISTOCRAT Constance Marten and her convicted rapist partner have been found guilty of killing their newborn baby.

- EMILY PENNINK

Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, went on the run with daughter Victoria in early 2023 after their four other children were taken into care.

Police had launched a nationwide hunt after their car burst into flames on the motorway near Bolton, Greater Manchester.

The couple travelled across England and went off-grid, sleeping in a tent on the South Downs, where baby Victoria died.

After seven weeks on the run, the defendants were arrested in Brighton, East Sussex. Following a desperate search, police found their baby dead amid rubbish inside a Lidl bag in a disused shed nearby. Victoria's remains were too badly decomposed to establish the cause of death.

The prosecution said she died from hypothermia in the cold and damp conditions inside the flimsy tent, or was smothered.

The defendants claimed their daughter's death was a tragic accident after Marten fell asleep on her.

A jury in their retrial found Marten and Gordon unanimously guilty of manslaughter yesterday after 14 hours and 32 minutes of deliberations.

In their first trial last year, the defendants were convicted of perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child and child cruelty.