A jury on Monday discovered a British girl from an aristocratic household and her convicted rapist companion responsible of manslaughter after their new child daughter died whereas they have been dwelling off-grid in freezing temperatures.
Constance Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, have been arrested after a seven-week police hunt in January and February 2023 throughout which they frolicked dwelling in a tent.
The pair have been convicted at London’s Outdated Bailey court docket the place that they had confronted a retrial after one other jury final yr failed to succeed in a verdict on the manslaughter cost.
Marten sighed and shook her head whereas the verdicts have been learn out, the BBC reported, whereas Gordon sat together with his eyes closed and his head resting again in opposition to the wall.
Marten and Gordon, who had denied all the fees in opposition to them, went on the run after police discovered a placenta of their burnt-out automotive by a motorway outdoors Manchester in northwest England.
Regardless of having rich dad and mom with connections to the royal household and her personal belief fund, Marten rejected her privilege, in keeping with The Related Press. She lived at occasions with out paying hire and whereas on the lam scavenged meals from trash bins and camped in freezing circumstances.
Metropolitan Police/AP
Marten largely reduce off ties along with her household when she started courting Gordon in 2016, and the couple moved round rather a lot, in keeping with experiences.
Marten had instructed the court docket they absconded as a result of they needed to maintain their daughter Victoria, after their different 4 youngsters have been taken into care.
The couple have been ultimately arrested almost two months later, in Brighton on England’s southern coast.
Days later, child Victoria’s badly decomposed physique was present in a procuring bag on a vegetable patch.
However taking the witness stand at her first trial, Marten, whose household has historic ties to the royal household, insisted she and Gordon have been loving dad and mom.
“Mark and I really like our children greater than something on the earth,” she instructed the court docket. “I did nothing however present her love.”
The couple have been discovered responsible of perverting the course of justice, concealing the start of a kid and baby cruelty at their earlier trial.
Samantha Yelland, London’s senior crown prosecutor on the Crown Prosecution Service, stated that the couple’s “reckless actions have been pushed by a egocentric need to maintain their child regardless of the price – leading to her tragic demise,” the BBC reported.
“Justice… has lastly been served for child Victoria”
Marten had instructed police Victoria died when she fell asleep within the tent whereas holding her below her jacket.
Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford of the Metropolitan Police welcomed the decision.
“At the moment, the justice we have now lengthy fought for… has lastly been served for child Victoria,” he stated.
“The egocentric actions of Mark Gordon and Constance Marten resulted within the demise of a new child child who ought to have had the remainder of her life forward of her.”
Jordan Pettitt/PA Pictures by way of Getty Pictures 
He stated the conviction was a vindication of the authorities’ choice to take Marten’s 4 different youngsters into care. The pair might be sentenced on Sept. 15.
Detective Chief Inspector Joanna Yorke led the murder investigation into Victoria’s demise.
“We all know at present’s verdict will not carry Victoria again, however I’m happy our investigation has resulted within the couple who precipitated her demise lastly being dropped at justice,” Yorke stated in an announcement Monday.
Jurors on the first trial in 2024 weren’t instructed about Gordon’s violent previous in the USA which was solely partly revealed at their second trial.
The prosecution instructed the court docket that in 1989, Gordon, then aged 14, held a lady in opposition to her will in Florida for greater than 4 hours and raped her whereas armed with a “knife and hedge clippers.”
Inside a month, he entered one other property and carried out one other offence involving aggravated battery.
He was sentenced to 40 years in jail however was launched after serving 22 years.
In 2017, Gordon was additionally convicted of assaulting two feminine law enforcement officials at a maternity unit in Wales the place Marten gave start to their first baby below a faux identification.
