UK Woman Linked To Royals, Partner Jailed For 14 Years For Killing Their Newborn Child

Last Updated:September 15, 2025, 23:43 IST

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were sentenced to 14 years for the manslaughter of their baby, who died from neglect while the couple lived off-grid in freezing conditions.

After committing the murder, both sons spent the night on the farm, staying there until morning. (News18)

A British woman from an aristocratic background and her partner were each sentenced on Monday to 14 years in prison for the manslaughter of their newborn daughter, who died while the couple was living off-grid in freezing conditions.

Passing sentence, Judge Mark Lucraft told Constance Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, that the way they treated their baby, Victoria, had been “neglect of the gravest and most serious type”.

The two sat apart in the glass-fronted dock at London’s Old Bailey but were scolded by the judge for repeatedly exchanging notes and making gestures at each other, displaying what was described as a “complete lack of respect” for the court, AFP reported.

They were arrested after a seven-week police hunt in January and February 2023, during which they spent time living in a tent.

A jury found them guilty in July after a previous jury was unable to reach a verdict on the manslaughter charge.

The court heard that Marten and Gordon fled in an attempt to keep their baby after authorities had taken their four other children into care, citing the couple’s lifestyle and attitude as posing a “significant risk” to the youngsters.

They were eventually arrested two months later, in Brighton, on England’s southern coast.

Days afterwards, baby Victoria’s badly decomposed body was found in a shopping bag on a vegetable patch.

Marten told police that Victoria died after she accidentally fell asleep on her in the tent, but the judge stated he believed the infant actually died from hypothermia.

Marten’s mother, Virginie de Selliers, in a statement to the court, said she had been “horrified” at how her daughter had been characterised, adding it did not reflect “the daughter I remember”.

Her lawyer, Tom Godfrey, said Marten felt genuine “sadness and remorse” over Victoria’s death.

Philippa McAtasney, defending Gordon, said he had not been thinking “properly or rationally” when he decided to go on the run, but would have to live with the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life.

Royal Ties

Marten was born into wealth and privilege, raised in a 25-room mansion on a sprawling estate in Dorset, southwest England. Her aristocratic lineage maintained close ties with the royal family, her grandmother was a childhood friend of the late Queen Elizabeth II, and her father once served as a page boy to the monarch.

But Marten, who became estranged from her family, told the court earlier that they had been prejudiced against Gordon.

“There are a few people in my biological family who see me as an embarrassment and are scared I will speak out about them and will stop at nothing to get what they want.”

She further claimed, without offering full details, that a member of her family “wants me dead” after she spoke out against them.

British-born Gordon’s early life was a world away from Marten’s and marked by poverty and violence.

At the age of 14, in 1989, he held a woman against her will in Florida for more than four hours and raped her while armed with a “knife and hedge clippers”, prosecutors told the London court.

Within a month, he entered another property and carried out another offence involving aggravated battery.

He had originally been sentenced to 40 years in prison but was released after serving 22.

In 2017, Gordon was also convicted of assaulting two female police officers at a maternity unit in Wales, where Marten had given birth to their first child under a false identity.

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