UK Couple Convicted Of Killing Baby Daughter After Going 'Off-Grid' In Freezing Temperatures
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were found guilty of killing their baby daughter after they went to live "off-grid" in late 2022 in freezing temperatures in southern England.
A British couple were convicted on Monday for the manslaughter of their baby daughter for negligence, more than two years after they went on the run, sparking a nationwide manhunt.
Constance Marten, a British aristocrat whose father was once a page to the late Queen Elizabeth, and Mark Gordon went to live 'off-grid" in late 2022 when she was pregnant after their previous children were taken into care, according to prosecutors.
The couple had hoped to avoid to keep their baby girl, named Victoria, from the state's care, after their first four children were taken in a similar manner. Victoria was born in December 2022, and the couple decided to live off-grid despite Marten having access to thousands of pounds from her trust fund.
'Arrogant, Grossly Negligent'
The couple spent several weeks in freezing temperatures while living in a tent in southern England, which led to the death of the baby. Prosecutors said they spent thousands of pounds on taxis to take them almost the length of England as they sought to evade the authorities, but could not find the wherewithal to provide adequate clothing and care for their child, according to The Guardian.
'Their selfish desire to keep their baby girl led inexorably to the death of that very baby," said prosecutor Tom Little at the start of their trial at London's Old Bailey Court earlier this year. Victoria was likely to have died from hypothermia in cold conditions in the tent, or was smothered while co-sleeping, according to the prosecution.
Marten told the jury that she fell asleep in the tent with her daughter placed inside her zipped-up coat for warmth, days after going off-grid. When she awoke, she found her daughter dead and could not explain how she had died. 'I just knew she wasn't alive and I felt responsible because I was holding her so my assumption was that I had fallen asleep on her," she said.
Marten, 38, and Gordon, 51, were previously convicted of perverting the course of justice, child cruelty and concealing the birth of a child at an earlier trial, but the jury had been unable to reach a verdict at the time.
The couple will be sentenced in September, as per British media reports. Samantha Yelland, Senior Crown Prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service in London, said, 'Their reckless actions were driven by a selfish desire to keep their baby no matter the cost – resulting in her tragic death."
Marten and Gordon were sought by police from January 2023 after their abandoned car was found on fire with a placenta wrapped in a towel inside, near Manchester in northern England. After a nearly two-month search, they were located in Brighton on England's south coast, and the child's body was found two days later.
(with Reuters inputs)
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