Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been convicted of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice, according to new reports. After a ban on reporting the verdict was lifted, it was revealed that the jury in the couple’s first trial, which started in January, found them guilty. The jury was dismissed last week after failing to reach verdicts on some charges, with manslaughter, causing or allowing the death of a child, child cruelty, concealing the birth of a child, and perverting the course of justice all among the charges faced by the defendants. Neither party pleaded guilty.
Marten and Gordon are now set to face a retrial, with the possibility of the retrial taking place some time in early 2025. They will remain in custody until the retrial takes place. The original jury in the case returned guilty verdicts on May 30, before they were dismissed.
Marten, aged 37, and Gordon, aged 50, became the subject of a public police hunt in early 2023, when fresh evidence of a recent birth was discovered in a burnt-out car near Bolton. They were eventually located in Brighton, but their baby was not with them. The remains of the child, whom the couple had named Victoria, were found in a discarded shopping bag in an allotment in the Hollingbury part of Brighton two days later.
The couple first went to trial starting January 25. However, the trial had to be repeatedly delayed, including because of a fire at London’s Old Bailey that caused significant disruptions to court proceedings. During their trial, evidence showed that Victoria was born while the couple were trying to evade social services after their previous four children had all been removed by the family court. Marten and Gordon had been staying at rented cottages and hotels, but their car caught fire on the M62 motorway, near to Bolton, not long after the child was born, with the couple abandoning the car as they left.
The prosecution argued that the baby may have died due to exposure as the couple camped in January, but it was not possible to determine the cause of death during the post-mortem examination. However, Marten stated in court that she did not expose Victoria to dangerous conditions, and claimed that she woke up while holding Victoria on the second day of camping, only to find her dead. The defendants are set to be retried, with the case likely to take place in March 2025
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