Marten and Gordon jailed for 14 years each over death of newborn daughter

Aristocrat Constance Marten was sentenced to 14 years in prison yesterday for killing her infant daughter while on the run.

- By AMY-CLARE MARTIN CRIME CORRESPONDENT

Her partner Mark Gordon, a convicted rapist who spent 22 years in a Florida prison, must also serve 14 years after the parents were found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter of the baby girl, called Victoria. Gordon was handed down a further four years on extended licence.

The newborn died in a flimsy tent on the South Downs in the bitter cold as the parents hid off-grid to stop her from being taken into care like their four other children.

Marten, 38, wore her long dark hair in braids and was smartly dressed with a teal scarf and handbag as she sat in the dock next to Gordon, 51, in a suit. The pair, who sat just three metres apart to hear the sentencing, were repeatedly told off for attempting to pass notes to one another as they sat flanked by dock officers.

In Judge Mark Lucraft KC's sentencing, he said neither Marten nor Gordon “gave much or any thought to care for the welfare” of their baby, adding that their focus was entirely on themselves.

He said the pair showed “no genuine expression of remorse” about the death of their child and had “sought to blame everyone else” for what happened. Marten shook her head as the judge related these findings.

He added that despite claims from Marten and Gordon that they dressed baby Victoria in a ski jacket and kept her in a sling, CCTV footage shows this was not the case, and she was, in fact, dressed in a thin baby grow that was inappropriate for the cold conditions. The judge accepted the prosecution's case that baby Victoria died from hypothermia after being exposed to “significant cold stress”.