Constance Marten case — I feel the police have some responsibility too

What I keep coming back to is this: the police and media didn’t need to broadcast a full-scale manhunt in the way they did. Publicly, they could’ve taken a softer tone — something like: “We are not pursuing this as a criminal matter. We just want to make sure mum and baby are safe. Constance, you’re not in trouble, please come forward.”

What, a bit like this one?

There is nothing to suggest that any of them have come to any sort of intentional harm - we just need to ensure they are okay, especially the baby, and do not require any medical assistance for any underlying issues. The last confirmed sighting of them was more than a week ago in East Ham - they could now be anywhere in the UK, which is why it is vital that members of the public continue to contact us with any suspected sightings.
The assistance you've provided so far has been invaluable. Please don't forget about Constance, Mark and the baby - if you see them or think you have seen them then please contact us as a matter of urgency.

Seems like quite a ‘soft tone’ to me

He should have received life and served life for the brutal rape he committed when he was 14... if he had never been allowed back into society he should not have destroyed so many lives...

He said their behaviour was far worse even than two teenagers who had received custodial sentences just one week before. For murder. And they pleaded guilty.

I agree. They knew what they were doing insofar as they weren't insane and certainly didn't meet the legal definition of it. And they had control over the decisions that they made. It's just that those decisions were based upon a very warped premise. Personality disorders wouldn't come into the trial as are not a defense, although could be submitted ahead of sentencing. However, people with paranoid traits rarely co-operative with psychologists, believing that they will try to stitch them up or use that information against them. Similarly Narcissistic people would be the last to recognise that they were narcissistic or seek treatment for it. So i would be highly surprised if they were to put any reports forward for sentencing.

This is exactly how the messaging did start out. I remember much of the chatter on social media was along the lines of "why are they trying to find her, she can make her own decisions" - I don't think you're remembering that this initially was presented as a gentle welfare check and the public were perplexed by why CM was on the run and why the police cared. The fact they'd had 4 kids already removed was not officially shared until much later.

However, Marten and Gordon were historically hostile to all official oversight, hence their refusing prenatal care etc, their default was to regard any message from the police with deep suspicion. There was no softly-softly tone that would have made them cooperative, I think you've missed a lot of info here.

I read yesterday it would be in September.

Constance you aren't in any trouble.

Why would the police say to her but not to him? They were on the run together.

I think the police knew they wouldn't come forward, however gentle the message. They didn't exactly have a good record of engaging with support. The only hope was to galvanise the public into looking out for them and providing information.

And on the point of her background, most children coming through the system are from poor working class backgrounds, and there is a societal belief that middle and upper class people parent better, they don’t, they just have a better support network around them to stop their children ending up in care, and maybe it’s good to highlight that this doesn’t just happen to the poor working class.

Not life but certainly a substantial custodial sentence. And tbh that might be best for Marten in particular, given how dangerous Mark Gordon appears to be.

OMG. Dumbest comment of the year?

The police had one job, find the baby before she came to harm.

They bear no responsibility for what that evil pair did.

Yea, I’ve seen this over and over. They are full of self righteousness though. No one ever challenges them.

I don't think the police are to blame here. Initially, I was sympathetic but they come across as very self-centered and unempathetic individuals (and in Gordon's case, highly dangerous) who were prepared to subject their children to a lot of suffering to suit their own screwed-up narrative. They showed a lot of concern for their own (and in Constance Marten's case, for Gordon's) comfort but did not extend the same level of care to their helpless children, especially Baby Victoria.

I don't think they would ever have given themselves up voluntarily, the police had to try to find them as quickly as possible before harm came to the baby (hence the national publicity) and they didn't manage in time.

Is this a joke?

Why should they when people like the OP will just blame the police.

Two psychopaths or malignant narcissists probably. No sympathy at all for them.

Sorry? If they walked free, she'd have another baby. They need life in prison, there is no fixing them. Not ever.

The problem is... we DO know what happened. And I think CM needs far less care and attention than she has had, given her performance in court.

Social services and the courts (please remember it’s the courts that make the final decisions, the most social services can to is present their case) do make mistakes, these mistakes are more often leaving children in bad situations/ returning children to unfit parents. The burden of proof on them is heavy, and the threshold to remove is high, children grow up with birth parents being given chance after chance after chance to use the support provided and change their circumstances to being able to keep their children, the end result us adopters parenting deeply traumatised children.

children most defiantly are not taking away from women who suffer DV straight away, sometimes at the detriment of the child because birth parents are given SO many chances to step up.

after adoption adopters are encouraged facilitate a relationship between birth parents and birth child in a way that’s safe and with the child’s emotional well being at the forefront.

and yes he is an evil person , but she’s not blameless. She prioritised her relationship with him over the wellbeing of her children. That was HER choice, and it’s a choice that social services see time and time again, and it’s the children who suffered. This isn’t one off case of post partum depression or psychosis, this is a women that chooses to neglect her multiple children because she cannot give up a man.

anyone who has sympathy with her should spend a week parenting children growing up with the trauma of a system that gives birth parents too many chances, and see the very real damage that causes and then come back on her and say she ‘just needed a bit more suppprt’

Yes, I had a 'keep up at the back' moment too. 🙄

I've just read on BBC news website that it'll be in September. I guess there's a whole lot of stuff to wade through and, of course, they both have to be considered separately.

Well yes and I also agree with the decision. They were so blinkered that they couldn't even predict that.

When children are targets in this way - the woman is culpable too. She was totally in on the madness and neglect. Her lack of cooperation and behaviour in court shows who she is too. Just because she’s a woman doesn’t let her off. I notice this is a common theme now, the woman always being seen as a victim no matter what she does and even when they are perpetrators. Save your sympathy for the real victims in society, male or female.

You are delusional.

This 'version' of events is complete fantasy and ignores many basic facts about CM and MG, their lifestyle, behaviour and attitude.

It was nobody's fault but the two of them that their baby died.

And their behaviour in court was mind blowingly awful considering it was the death of their own child that was being examined.