Constance Marten wanted to expose ‘cult that broke her'
Marten, 38, who on Monday was convicted of killing her baby, joined the Christian preacher TB Joshua's Synagogue Church of All Nations in Nigeria (Scoan) as a 19-year-old in 2006.
Angie, a fellow disciple who shared a dormitory with her, told the BBC that the church was 'a place of torture, psychological abuse, physical abuse, spiritual abuse, and sexual abuse' under Joshua's leadership.
Marten was thrown out of Scoan after four months, with Joshua telling others that she was a 'CIA spy'.
On Monday Marten was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter following the death of her baby Victoria. The baby died while Marten and her partner Mark Gordon spent weeks on the run in fear that the authorities would take the child away after social services took her previous four children into care.
After leaving the church and graduating from university, Marten worked as a researcher at the Al Jazeera news channel, where she tried to make a documentary about Scoan — a project she mentioned in messages sent to Angie in early 2013.
'I really want this film to give an understanding to viewers of how cults work, and the very subtle manipulation that happens, so subtle that you can't even notice it,' Marten wrote. She said Joshua's 'hoodwinking of innocent people' must 'come into the light'.
• Who is the real Constance Marten? A life that led to tragedy
Bisola Hephzibah Johnson, another former disciple, told the BBC that she persuaded Marten not to return to Scoan in 2013 to carry out secret filming for her documentary because it would be too dangerous.
In further messages to Angie, she wrote: 'I haven't spoken to anyone about what happened at the synagogue. All my university friends are secular, and if I told them about what I'd seen in Lagos, they'd think I was lying or mad!'
Marten said she had tried to deal with what she experienced 'silently and with a lot of confusion'. 'It's taken me years to get back to normal,' she wrote. She said it would be a great help 'both emotionally and spiritually' to talk to Angie, who replied and later met Marten twice.
Angie said: 'It's no wonder she just ended up distrusting normal institutions, because clearly something broke within her at some point.'
Marten, and Gordon, 51, went on the run with their daughter Victoria in early 2023 after their four other children were taken into care. Police had launched a nationwide hunt after their car burst into flames on the motorway near Bolton, Greater Manchester.
• Constance Marten's partner says couple are victims of racism
The couple travelled across England and went off grid, sleeping in a tent on the South Downs where baby Victoria died. After seven weeks on the run, the defendants were arrested in Brighton, East Sussex. Following a desperate search, police found their baby dead amid rubbish inside a Lidl bag in a disused shed nearby.
They will be sentenced at a later date.
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Scottish Sun
14 hours ago
- Scottish Sun
Constance Marten moans she's ‘treated like a killer' in jail & brands inmates and lawyers ‘Dementors' from Harry Potter
She claimed the lawyers were making 'angels look like devils' SICK RANT Constance Marten moans she's 'treated like a killer' in jail & brands inmates and lawyers 'Dementors' from Harry Potter Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Constance Marten has complained that she's "treated like a killer" in jail and brands her prosecutors like soul-sucking "Dementors." Posh prisoner Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, were convicted of gross negligence manslaughter after the death of their baby girl. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 7 Constance, 38, was convicted of the gross negligent manslaughter of her daughter Victoria today Credit: Central News 7 Her partner Mark Gordon, 51, was also convicted of gross negligent manslaughter Credit: Central News 7 The baby died while the couple lived 'off-grid' in freezing conditions Credit: Central News 7 Constance Marten told police that Victoria had died after she fell asleep while holding her Credit: Central News In a bitter rant to The View Magazine, a publication promoting reform for women in custody, Marten moaned about being 'treated like a killer' in jail. This is despite being found guilty over the death of her baby daughter. Marten and rapist boyfriend Gordon were convicted after their newborn Victoria was found dead in a Lidl shopping bag. Speaking from behind bars, Marten was very critical of her prosecutors and bizarrely told the prison magazine that they reminded her of the soul-sucking creatures in Harry Potter. She said: "It was his voice. I just couldn't bear it anymore. "Tom Little and Joel Smith remind me of Dementors from Harry Potter. "There's no empathy. I felt like I was being grilled as a serial killer." The 37-year-old aristocrat is locked up in HMP Bronzefield alongside notorious child murderers Lucy Letby and Beinash Batool following a four-month retrial at the Old Bailey. She complained about being spoken to like a child and accused legal teams of trying to 'make angels look like devils and devils appear angelic'. Marten added: "They all use this disgusting tone, like they're reprimanding a small child. Aristocrat Constance Marten and her convicted rapist partner have been found guilty of killing their newborn baby "I've heard them laugh and joke with others, but with me, it's always condescending. "I just shut down because no one wants to be spoken to like that. People say, 'Oh, they're just doing their job', but they're not. "They're paid to make angels look like devils and devils appear angelic." The mum barely mentioned her daughter, who prosecutors believe died from hypothermia or suffocation in a flimsy tent after the couple went on the run. Marten and Gordon sparked a nationwide manhunt in early 2023 after fleeing with their newborn, desperate to avoid the baby being taken into care like their previous four children. When asked about using pseudonyms while off-grid, she gave the excuse: "The police give people aliases all the time under witness protection. "That doesn't make me a liar. I was trying to protect myself and Victoria." Marten gave birth to Victoria without seeking any medical assistance in early 2022 and kept her "their little secret". The infant had hardly any clothes or "means of keeping or remaining warm". Victoria, who spent 'much of her life' in a Lidl bag for life, was tragically discovered dumped among rubbish in a shed near Brighton. A jury found the pair guilty of gross negligence manslaughter after hearing harrowing details of how they ignored warnings and lived 'off-grid'. In a police interview, Marten later said: "I had her in my jacket and I hadn't slept properly in quite a few days and erm, I fell asleep holding her sitting up and she, when I woke up, she wasn't alive." Jurors were told Marten had been warned by social workers about the risk of falling asleep with a baby lying on her and that a tent was unsuitable. Both she and Gordon lost their appeal against the child cruelty convictions and are due to be sentenced in September. This comes as... Marten was a former Tatler 'It Girl" and her family had close links to the Royals. But her life spiralled out of control after she and Gordon, 51, met by chance in a North London incense shop in 2014. The couple went off the radar from her friends and family and formed their own self-styled cult living apart from society, with Constance even posing as an Irish traveller when she attended hospital while pregnant. Constance also travelled the world and went to festivals including Burning Man and Wireless, saying: 'Dance is my oxygen.' She spent her summer holidays in 2010 working for a film production company in Cairo. One of her colleagues there described her as being 'very decent, nice and friendly' and having 'great potential'. But she added that Constance sometimes chose the 'wrong' type of man, adding: 'She was somehow gullible.' During the trial, it was revealed that Gordon was convicted of a series of sexual offences - including rape - while living in the US. Gordon, who was 14 at the time, broke into the house of a next door neighbour wearing a nylon stocking over his face and armed with a knife and hedge clippers. He demanded the woman undress and attempted to rape her before carrying out the vile offences in the April 1989 horror. The victim of his crime told the BBC she was "floored" when she found out the man who attacked her 36 years ago was on the run from police in the UK in 2023. She said: "The four-and-a-half hours I spent with him was enough to know he is evil." On May 21 the same year, Gordon broke into another home with a shovel and battered a man inside. The fiend was sentenced in the US to 40 years in prison, of which he served 22 years. In 2017, Gordon was convicted of assaulting two female police officers at a maternity unit in Wales. Jurors were not told that Gordon was also suspected of a incident of domestic violence in 2019 which left Marten with a shattered spleen. 7 In 2021 a judge ordered her four children should be adopted, shortly before she fell pregnant with Victoria Credit: Central News 7 The couple would carry Victoria around in a Lidl bag after getting rid of their pram Credit: Central News 7 Her arrest came following a 54-day manhunt Credit: Central News
The Sun
14 hours ago
- The Sun
Constance Marten moans she's ‘treated like a killer' in jail & brands inmates and lawyers ‘Dementors' from Harry Potter
Constance Marten has complained that she's "treated like a killer" in jail and brands her prosecutors like soul-sucking "Dementors." Posh prisoner Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, were convicted of gross negligence manslaughter after the death of their baby girl. 7 7 7 In a bitter rant to The View Magazine, a publication promoting reform for women in custody, Marten moaned about being 'treated like a killer' in jail. This is despite being found guilty over the death of her baby daughter. Marten and rapist boyfriend Gordon were convicted after their newborn Victoria was found dead in a Lidl shopping bag. Speaking from behind bars, Marten was very critical of her prosecutors and bizarrely told the prison magazine that they reminded her of the soul-sucking creatures in Harry Potter. "There's no empathy. I felt like I was being grilled as a serial killer." The 37-year-old aristocrat is locked up in HMP Bronzefield alongside notorious child murderers Lucy Letby and Beinash Batool following a four-month retrial at the Old Bailey. She also complained about being spoken to like a child and accused legal teams of trying to 'make angels look like devils and devils appear angelic'. Marten added: "They all use this disgusting tone, like they're reprimanding a small child. "I've heard them laugh and joke with others, but with me, it's always condescending. "I just shut down because no one wants to be spoken to like that. People say, 'Oh, they're just doing their job', but they're not. "They're paid to make angels look like devils and devils appear angelic." The mum barely mentioned her daughter, who prosecutors believe died from hypothermia or suffocation in a flimsy tent after the couple went on the run. Marten and Gordon sparked a nationwide manhunt in early 2023 after fleeing with their newborn, desperate to avoid the baby being taken into care like their previous four children. She gave birth to Victoria without seeking any medical assistance in early 2022 and kept her "their little secret". The infant had hardly any clothes or "means of keeping or remaining warm". Victoria, who spent 'much of her life' in a Lidl bag for life, was tragically discovered dumped among rubbish in a shed near Brighton. A jury found the pair guilty of gross negligence manslaughter after hearing harrowing details of how they ignored warnings and lived 'off-grid'. In a police interview, Marten later said: "I had her in my jacket and I hadn't slept properly in quite a few days and erm, I fell asleep holding her sitting up and she, when I woke up, she wasn't alive." Jurors were told Marten had been warned by social workers about the risk of falling asleep with a baby lying on her and that a tent was unsuitable. Both she and Gordon lost their appeal against the child cruelty convictions and are due to be sentenced in September. This comes as... Marten was a former Tatler 'It Girl" and her family had close links to the Royals. But her life spiralled out of control after she and Gordon, 51, met by chance in a North London incense shop in 2014. The couple went off the radar from her friends and family and formed their own self-styled cult living apart from society, with Constance even posing as an Irish traveller when she attended hospital while pregnant. Constance also travelled the world and went to festivals including Burning Man and Wireless, saying: 'Dance is my oxygen.' She spent her summer holidays in 2010 working for a film production company in Cairo. One of her colleagues there described her as being 'very decent, nice and friendly' and having 'great potential'. But she added that Constance sometimes chose the 'wrong' type of man, adding: 'She was somehow gullible.' During the trial, it was revealed that Gordon was convicted of a series of sexual offences - including rape - while living in the US. Gordon, who was 14 at the time, broke into the house of a next door neighbour wearing a nylon stocking over his face and armed with a knife and hedge clippers. He demanded the woman undress and attempted to rape her before carrying out the vile offences in the April 1989 horror. The victim of his crime told the BBC she was "floored" when she found out the man who attacked her 36 years ago was on the run from police in the UK in 2023. She said: "The four-and-a-half hours I spent with him was enough to know he is evil." On May 21 the same year, Gordon broke into another home with a shovel and battered a man inside. The fiend was sentenced in the US to 40 years in prison, of which he served 22 years. In 2017, Gordon was convicted of assaulting two female police officers at a maternity unit in Wales. Jurors were not told that Gordon was also suspected of a incident of domestic violence in 2019 which left Marten with a shattered spleen. 7 7 7 Timeline of baby 'killing' - how couple evaded cops CONSTANCE Marten and Mark Gordon allegedly sparked a 54-day manhunt across the UK after vanishing with their baby Victoria. Here's how the pair's journey began... December 20, 2022 Marten and Gordon booked into a holiday cottage in Northumberland, with the rental due to end on Boxing Day. The owner told jurors he found the property in "something of a state" on December 28. December 24, 2022 The couple claim their baby daughter was born this day but this has been disputed by prosecutors. December 28, 2022 Their Suzuki broke down on the M18 motorway so a recovery driver took them to a nearby Sainsbury's. There was allegedly no sign of the baby but the back and side windows of the car had been blocked by clothing. January 4, 2023 Marten and Gordon checked into the Ibis hotel at the Lymm Services in Cheshire then later the AC Hotel in Manchester. January 5, 2023 The couple's Peugeot 206 catches fire on the M61 motorway in Greater Manchester. Police launch an urgent probe after finding placenta, burner phones and Marten's passport, jurors were told. She and Gordon are taken to a Morrisons store in Bolton by a member of the public before being seen on CCTV at the nearby Bolton Interchange station. The couple allegedly use Marten's trust for a taxi to Liverpool, then a £400 cab to Harwich in Essex. Cab driver Ali Yaryar, who picked the couple up from Liverpool, told the court: "I think the baby had no clothes". January 6, 2023 The couple arrive in Harwich and check into a Premier Inn at around 3am. They later move to the Fryatt Hotel, where they paid in cash, it was said. January 7, 2023 Marten and Gordon travel by taxi to Colchester then to East Ham in London. The couple allegedly buy a buggy from Argos then grab another cab to Whitechapel. They ate in a Brick Lane restaurant then dump the new buggy - choosing instead to keep Victoria in a Lidl bag, jurors heard. January 8, 2023 The couple spend £475 on a taxi from Hornsey to Newhaven in East Sussex and walk to the South Downs National Park. January 9, 2023 Both Marten and Gordon claim baby Victoria died on this day - making her 16 days old, the court was told. It is said there is no way of knowing this for sure. January 12, 2023 Marten is captured buying snacks and petrol with cash but there was no sign of the baby. Prosecutors say she bought the fuel to cremate the baby but changed her mind. January 16, 2023 Marten and Gordon are seen setting up a tent in Stanmer Park Nature Reserve in the South Downs despite the cold weather. February 16/17, 2023 The couple are spotted near Hollingbury Golf Course in rural Sussex allegedly pushing a buggy with no baby. Their tent is later seen in Coldean Lane in Brighton A driver sees the pair walking towards Stanmer Park with something under Marten's puffer jacket, the court heard. February 19, 2023 Gordon and Marten are allegedly seen in their tent in the park with a very young baby with a "wobbly" head. Jurors told the baby had no socks, blanket or hat on. February 27, 2023 The couple are arrested in Hollingbury Place in Brighton but do not reveal Victoria's location at first, it is said. March 1, 2023 Tragic Victoria is found dead in a Lidl bag covered in rubbish inside a disused shed "like refuse", the court is told.
Daily Record
16 hours ago
- Daily Record
Warning signs of killer mum who dumped dead baby in Lidl bag
Those early signs of disconnect were there when Marten embarked on student life. Previous lecturers and colleague's have expressed warning signs a killer mum showed years before dumping her dead baby in a Lidl bag. Constance Marten had a wealthy, privileged upbringing. But her trial heard she 'never really had a strong connection' with her family and eventually became estranged from them. But later in life she became a mother who allowed her own helpless child to die in freezing conditions, then kept her body in a shopping bag for days or even weeks after her death. The Mirror has now reported she displayed a similar lack of bonding with fellow students when she studied to become a journalist. The aloof personality trait could stand as a marker of how Marten descended into a mother who allowed her own helpless child to die in freezing conditions, then kept her body in a shopping bag for days or even weeks after her death. Those early signs of disconnect were there when Marten embarked on student life. She had enrolled on a intensive postgraduate journalism course in a bid to become a reporter 10 years ago having already spent some time interning with news organisation Al Jazeera after studying Arabic at Leeds university. One of her lecturers said, Marten was unassuming and didn't boast about her wealth to her fellow students - but was unable to form close relationships with them. Marten had grown up with brothers Maximilian, 35, and Tobias, 32, at the 'immensely large' property, which provided the backdrop to Gwyneth Paltrow's 1996 film, Emma, boasts 25 rooms, a ballroom and a wine cellar and overlooks a crescent-shaped lake. The 37-year-old had been re-tried at the Old Bailey after her fifth child died at just a few weeks old when she and partner Mark Gordon, 49 decided to go on the run fearing their daughter would be put into care, as their four elder children had been. The both denied charges of manslaughter by gross negligence of their daughter Victoria between January 4 and February 27, last year - but were unanimously found guilty. The defendants, of no fixed address, had been convicted of child cruelty, perverting the course of justice and concealing the birth of a child at their first child at a previous trial. Marten and Gordon both lost an appeal against those first trial convictions and will be sentenced on September 15. During both trials, Marten defended her decision to live in a tent with her newborn baby, and said the baby died when she fell asleep after breastfeeding. The prosecution said Victoria died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping in a 'flimsy' tent on the South Downs. The infant's remains were found in an allotment shed inside the supermarket bag, along with a sandwich wrapper and an empty beer can. In an insight into her selfish personality, Marten claimed she hadn't reported the child's death because she feared being cast as "some evil mother, a murderess" and added: "I don't trust the police.' Speaking about Marten's time as a journalism student, Fiona, who was Head of Diploma Training at the Press Association, said she felt Marten was confident but never really formed a close bond with anyone. She said: "She stood out and I remember her. During the first few days she stood up and introduced herself as Toots, so we all knew her as Toots, not Constance, it was a family nickname, and she used it as her name, like posh people do. "She was confident and smiley, she told everyone that she had been in New York taking photos and wanted to become a photojournalist. I looked at her photos and I thought they were really good, she had taken some nice stuff. "We didn't know she came from money, she never mentioned her family. She spoke well, she had a very posh accent as if she spent a lot of years in private school. "She was obviously privately educated, she had already done a bit of freelancing. Some people came to us straight from university and others had tried freelancing then realised they needed the basics, like media law and shorthand. "She was a bit off beat, she would sometimes appear a bit dishevelled. She would turn up in things that looked quite expensive but she wasn't flashy. She fit in with the others but her tops weren't from Primark, although there were no Prada handbags." Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice. Fiona, who was one of the trainers at the PA offices in Victoria, London, remembered that Marten appeared a bit lost and didn't really have the drive to be a reporter, unlike most people who were on 17-week course for those who already had a degree. She said: "People on these intense courses often formed friendships very quickly, that often stick throughout their career. "She was friendly with everybody and people liked her but I wouldn't say she had a close friend. She felt a little bit like someone who could easily be taken advantage of. She was very trusting of people. She seemed a bit lost. "She wasn't as driven to be a journalist as most people on the course were. She was a little bit lost and slightly naive. She was really trying to do something and have a career and be independent it seemed."
