I stared Constance Marten in the eyes during horror baby death trial…she’s not evil but this is why she’s STILL a danger

CONSTANCE Marten is a criminal I think about often and won’t forget any time soon. The aristocrat dumped her dead baby daughter in a Lidl Bag for Life while camping in freezing conditions and on the run with convicted rapist husband Mark Gordon. Constance Marten was jailed for gross negligence manslaughter last year Credit: Marten, pictured on CCTV, thought her family had hired private investigators to spy on her Credit: Supplied It was a callous, contemptible and avoidable end to little Victoria’s days-long life. And, now, Marten, jailed last year for gross negligence manslaughter, wants to appeal her 14-year prison sentence. I sat through both of her trials at the Old Bailey, which descended into farce, and I am clear she must stay behind bars. Not because she is a monstrous, evil, wicked mother. This won’t win me many fans, and maybe I am too woke, but having watched this impulsive, paranoid and wild woman in court for the cumulative best part of a year, I don’t think she is evil at all. That is too easy and lazy a trope to fall on. I have sat through horrific, traumatising child murder trials and I have looked evil in the face. Urfan Sharif, for instance, who tortured his ten-year-old daughter for years before beating her to death, is evil. Constance went on the run with husband Mark Gordon, a convicted rapist Credit: PA The couple had already had four children taken away by family courts Credit: Enterprise Marten is something else. That ‘something else’ is exactly why she must stay locked up. She was a selfish, reckless mother. A failed, absent mother. A disastrous, barbaric and despicable mother even in how she dumped Victoria’s body. But not innately evil. I genuinely believe she at least wanted to be a mother, she wanted to love her children and she believed she could – and that is what makes her so dangerous. Because the tragedy of this story is that this mentally-troubled woman was fuelled by wild conspiracy theories about Britain’s institutions and a crazy paranoia over her powerful family which blinded her to how terribly and perilously incapable she was of caring for a child. She prioritised her relationship and genuinely convinced herself she was keeping her kids safe from those who she wrongly thought were ‘out to get’ them – the NHS, social services, the police, the family courts. It is hard for any normal person like you or I to even try to understand how on earth she thought that – it is one of the craziest things I have seen in court – but she very clearly did. She thought she was showing her children love and, in doing so, failed to protect her them from herself. If she gets out soon, I fear history could repeat itself. Ed Southgate describes Constance as a ‘selfish, reckless mother’ but says she’s not evil Credit: Darren Fletcher Constance wants to appeal her 14-year prison sentence, but Ed believes she should stay behind bars Credit: AFP After all, having a family was the whole, entirely misguided point of her and husband Mark Gordon’s secret sprint across the country. They had already had four children taken away by the oh-so-terrible family courts and Marten genuinely thought going on the run was an act of love to get her family away. It is a delusion that led her daughter to die in a freezing tent but, even through two trials, Marten just could not accept it. Victoria’s death in 2023 was the most horrific end and there were warning signs years earlier. In 2017, in labour with her first child, Marten went to a hospital in Wales with a fake name – Isabella O’Brien – and a fake Irish accent, claiming to be a traveller outcast from her family. It did not take long for NHS staff to recognise her from a nationwide alert that was put out after she disappeared while heavily pregnant. Social services went to where she was staying and found they had been camping in the woods, with bottles of urine on the floor by the entrance. A disgraceful way to live ahead of the birth of her first baby, which tragically foreshadows the circumstances in which her last baby will die. But this way of life wasn’t the act of an evil woman intent on harming her first baby. She was on the run with warped fears that her wealthy family had hired private investigators to spy on her and Gordon – a convicted rapist whom her family hated. Family court proceedings began after their first baby, and continued in London when the couple moved there. Judges note that Gordon could be violent when under stress, and that the couple sometimes prioritised their own relationship over their baby’s needs. By late 2019, Marten was already pregnant with her second baby. A local authority alleged domestic abuse between her and Gordon, that they failed to meet their children’s medical needs and that they tried to avoid investigation. And later a heavily pregnant Marten fell out of a window in the early hours. Gordon did not call 999. Their baby survived and they told authorities she fell out the window while trying to fix the TV aerial. Authorities remained suspicious. Marten left hospital and fled to Ireland with her two children, before returning a month later when they were taken off her. By January 2021, their third baby was born and also removed. They repeatedly missed contact sessions with their children and then stopped visiting altogether before a judge decided in January 2022 that all four children – yes, they had had another by this point – would be permanently removed and adopted. Throughout the family court proceedings, Marten and Gordon stuck loyally together against social workers, the NHS, the police, the family court system who they thought were not there to help but to destroy them. They genuinely thought it was them and their family against the world, and this same, selfish, deluded attitude was on show at the Old Bailey. As family court Judge Reardon said: “The strong impression given by the parents is that of two people who are fiercely united in an unrelenting struggle against a non-existent opponent.” Marten, so desperate to keep her children, offered to separate from Gordon. Luckily, the Judge did not believe her. But then we come to Christmas Eve 2022. Marten and Gordon had spent nine months hiding their fifth pregnancy, knowing that it would be taken away if anyone found out. They jumped between councils so none could claim authority, and ended up giving birth in a holiday cottage in Northumbria. Days later on January 5 2023 were driving along the M61 motorway near Bolton in Greater Manchester when their Peugeot 206 went up in flames. Another driver had pulled over and called 999. Marten, knowing their baby would be taken away, made the selfish, reckless and dangerous choice to run. They travelled from Bolton, to Liverpool, to Harwich in Essex, spending hundreds in taxi fares with cash. They then went to London, before getting a tent and camping in the South Downs in freezing temperatures that would never in a million years be suitable for a newborn. Victoria would die there. She would be dumped in a Lidl Bag for Life and would not be found until March 1, in a disused allotment. She was so decomposed that we cannot know for sure when she was born or when she died. All we will ever know for sure is her name. It was obviously never Marten and Gordon’s plan to end up there. They obviously didn’t have much of plan – she mentioned wanting to sneak abroad – but it certainly was not to end up there. Long before that car caught fire, but certainly as soon as it did, they should have accepted their time was up and hand their baby over. Instead, they decided the opposite and selfishly chose to take their baby on the run. Part of this decision-making was no doubt because of those warped delusions that the authorities were the callous ones and she had to protect her family from being broken up again. So extreme were her delusions that she would rather camp with a newborn in winter than turn themselves in. She thought this was her being a protective mother. How sad. But even if, when that car caught fire and they saw their plans go up in smoke, they did stop and hand the baby over. What then? Would they try again for a sixth baby and do the same? Or a seven? Or an eighth? And then she may hide them in that strange way she calls love and we could be in the same situation. Throughout both their trials it was so clear that they still genuinely think they are the loving parents and that all the institutions were in the wrong. She even blamed the press for publicising the police’s manhunt, because it apparently made them panic which is why they wanted to lie low on the South Downs. They failed to show any remorse or take any accountability for how their own reckless actions killed her daughter. She still, remarkably, was convinced she was showing her child love and was quite angry that others could not see that. That is why she must stay behind bars. This is a woman not motivated by evil wickedness, but by a hopeless, dangerous desire to be the sort of mother she thinks she is but will never be. So much so that she had five children in a relatively short space of time and ran away with one. She is clearly an awful mother and I can’t imagine much has changed in the year since she was sentenced. I genuinely hope she can come round to seeing what really went wrong. But I just don’t think that will happen anytime soon. So if she gets out, she may well try for another. If she does, she may well hide it again from the authorities. And we may well end up with another avoidable tragedy.