Latest news with #grossnegligence
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
Child killer Constance Marten 'barred from calling lover or sending him letters', prison source claims
Killer Constance Marten has been banned from calling her lover Mark Gordon or sending him letters from jail, a prison source claims. The pair are awaiting sentence for the manslaughter by gross negligence of their newborn daughter, Victoria, in 2023. A source said Marten, 38, had expected to be able to contact Gordon, 51, who is being held at HMP Belmarsh, once the trial had concluded. However, HMP Bronzefield's inmate system states inter-prison phone calls and letters from her have been barred by officials. 'Inter-prison calls are not difficult to arrange,' the source said. 'Prisoners are quite often allowed to phone family members that are in different establishments. 'Once security have given the thumbs-up, it's up to the officers on the two units to arrange it. It's simple and something that happens on a semi-regular basis, but with Constance and Mark staff have been told there's not a chance. 'Prisoners are allowed to write to whoever they want to. But just because they pop it in the post bag it doesn't mean it is going to get there. Every letter is read by security. Constance is going to be fuming when she finds out Mark isn't getting any of them.' Marten and Gordon were last month found guilty of causing the death of Victoria after going on the run in December 2022 in a bid to prevent social services taking the baby into care. 'Inter-prison calls are not difficult to arrange,' the source said. 'But with Constance and Mark staff have been told there's not a chance.' Marten is awaiting sentence in unit four of women-only HMP Bronzefield (pictured) which also houses fellow child-killer Lucy Letby They were also convicted of concealing the birth of a child, perverting the course of justice and child cruelty. The couple's four other children had already been taken from them largely due to concerns about convicted rapist Gordon's behaviour, it emerged in court. He was also found by a judge to have caused Marten to fall out of a window in 2019, shattering her spleen. Marten is awaiting sentence in unit four of women-only HMP Bronzefield, which also houses fellow child-killers Lucy Letby and Beinash Batool. A spokesman for Sodexo, which runs the institution, said it could not comment on individual prisoners.
BBC News
5 days ago
- BBC News
George Gilbey fall death inquiry by Essex Police is closed
Police have closed their criminal investigation into the death of former Gogglebox personality George self-employed electrician, 40, was working in Shoeburyness, Essex, in March 2024, when he fell through a men, now aged 37 and 49 and both from Witham, were arrested on suspicion of gross negligence Police confirmed they had both been released without charge and would face no further action. However, a criminal investigation by the Health and Safety Executive remains ongoing. Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
14-07-2025
- BBC News
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon guilty of gross negligence manslaughter of their baby
A couple who went on the run with their newborn daughter have been found guilty of her manslaughter by gross Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, were convicted on Monday following a lengthy and chaotic retrial at the Old Bailey, which the judge accused them of trying to "sabotage" and "derail". It comes more than two years after the decomposed body of their baby, Victoria, had been discovered in a shopping bag in earlier trial at the same court found them guilty of concealing the birth of a child, perverting the course of justice by not reporting her death, and of child cruelty - the latter of which could not be reported until now. To now have been found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence means that the jury found that the couple's behaviour had been so exceptionally bad and fell below the standard of reasonably competent prosecution had argued during their retrial that Marten and Gordon had made a conscious decision to not keep Victoria safe, and that it was clear their actions had been to the prosecution's case was that Victoria had died from hypothermia or by being smothered while co-sleeping in a small, thin tent in cold, damp and windy conditions in January 2023. It is thought that the couple went on the run to avoid the authorities and keep Victoria, their fifth child together, with their four other children having being been previously taken into and Gordon both refused to stand as the jury delivered its unanimous verdict on Monday. Marten shook her head and sighed, while Gordon sat with his eyes closed and his head resting back on the also told the judge following the verdicts that he planned to "win on appeal" and described it as an "unfair trial".Speaking afterwards, chief prosecutor Jaswant Narwal said the defendants had shown "little remorse for their actions" and had used "different antics to frustrate and delay court proceedings"."I hope these convictions provide a sense of justice and comfort to all those affected by this tragic case."Samantha Yellend, London's senior crown prosecutor, said it was "shocking" that the couple would expose their child to "such obvious risks" and that their "reckless actions were driven by a selfish desire to keep their baby no matter the cost". In the retrial, the jury also heard that Gordon had been convicted of rape in Florida in 1989 when he was aged 14. For legal reasons, this conviction - for which he was sentenced to 40 years in prison and deported back to the UK after serving 20 years - was not made known during the first couple became the subjects of a police manhunt in 2023 when officers found evidence of a recent birth in a burnt-out car near were found on 27 February 2023 and Victoria was discovered dead two days later in an allotment shed in the Hollingbury area of Brighton. She had died in a tent in the South Downs in January that Superintendent Lewis Basford, who led the search for them, said Victoria's death was "completely avoidable" and that the couple had many opportunities to "do the right thing and... ask for help"."We have waited more than two years to secure justice for baby Victoria and I am pleased we have now been able to get that for her - despite her parents trying to disrupt and derail not one, but two trials," he added that as a father himself, he found it "hard to comprehend how, instead of providing the warmth and care their child needed" Marten and Gordon "chose to live outside during freezing conditions to avoid the authorities".The couple are expected to be sentenced in September.
South China Morning Post
14-07-2025
- South China Morning Post
UK couple found guilty of killing baby daughter while on the run
A British aristocrat and her partner were convicted on Monday of the manslaughter of their baby daughter through gross negligence, more than two years after their disappearance sparked a nationwide manhunt. Constance Marten – whose father was once a page to the late Queen Elizabeth – and Mark Gordon went to live 'off-grid' in late 2022 when Marten was pregnant after their previous children were taken into care, prosecutors said. 'Their selfish desire to keep their baby girl led inexorably to the death of that very baby,' prosecutor Tom Little said at the start of their trial at London's Old Bailey Court earlier this year. Marten, 38, and Gordon, 51, slept for several weeks in a tent in southern England during freezing winter temperatures, part of what Little described as the couple's 'arrogant and ultimately grossly negligent conduct'. Their selfish desire to keep their baby girl led inexorably to the death of that very baby Prosecutor Tom Little The pair pleaded not guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence, but were convicted by a jury on Monday.
RNZ News
01-07-2025
- RNZ News
Lucy Letby's former bosses arrested
crime world 29 minutes ago Three ex-bosses of UK nurse Lucy Letby have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. London Correspondent Olly Barratt spoke to Corin Dann.
