Constance Marten & Mark Gordon - Baby A case

[SportMum1982]

What have I just read? What the actual fuck is wrong with the world. That poor baby. These utter idiots. Sorry I’m so so angry.

Constance Marten and partner ‘killed baby to keep her out of care’

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/24e56090-f175-4bf8-ac07-380621d9954f?shareToken=186074e86c05c4df704ef1889186acdc

That’s the bit I read - horrendous 😢

They literally tossed their rubbish on top of their dead baby...

I hadn't realised till now the pair are evil. I thought they were just run of the mill junk genes - druggies who are bad news for humans.

The man kept whining to the police ‘I’m getting sub-par treatment. My knees hurt’

while refusing to answer questions.

The woman couldn’t remember when the baby ‘died’.

Again - the social workers who saved the lives of the other four children deserve a medal.

Today's evidence was truly shocking.

This is also an incredibly slow trial... having missed a week because of the fire at the Old Bailey followed by 'administrative issues', the live reporting once again said that they will not be back in court until next Monday now. It seems Constance Martin keeps changing her KC!

Earlier in the thread I said we really should wait to comment until after the trial, dear god I changed my mind when I saw how they had 'disposed' of that poor baby. My pity pot is well and truly empty, may they rot!

I think it was more to disguise as ‘just a bag of rubbish’ than actively treating the baby like rubbish ? There were also pink clothes and a pink blanket in the bag. A pair of half starved freezing cold junkies not thinking straight very sadly. Thank goodness their other children were at least safe. Its an extremely sad case

Is there any evidence they were heroin addicts?

No, certainly not as yet. No drug paraphernalia has been found at all either.
A lot of food & drink for themselves was found, but also nothing pertaining to a baby's needs... no formula, no warm clothes... just evidence of appalling neglect!

They weren’t half starved - loads of food wrappers found tossed over the body of Victoria.

See also mugshots and VT - round faces, quite healthy physiques.

I hope they were junkies - asking for rehab would be the only mitigation they’ve got.The man faked pain for pills the minute he got into a police station; he knew there was a nurse about.

They’re a good example of how startlingly horrible long term drug users are - frontal lobe damage.

They spent hundreds on random taxi journeys. Why the assumption they were "half starved"?

Probably because they wasted so much money on taxis - and there is footage of them scavenging in bins and they said they were starving also the police stated they unusually gave food as knew they were hungry? Often people with addiction (if they were indeed addicts) make bad choices so very well could have prioritised other things over food then realised they needed food

They've not said whether there was any drug or alcohol abuse, so I don't think you can assume.

They were clearly in poor physical shape when they were found - the man was walking with a branch for support and seemed hungry, tired and in pain. Which is unsurprising after living rough for 2 months in winter.

Once they realised they'd been on the national news, it seems like they didn't want to make any trips to the shops or be seen in public in case they were spotted and reported. They were spotted on cctv going through bins at night looking for food, despite having access to money, so I think they were determined not to be found.

I think their hunger must've forced out of hiding eventually, which is when they were arrested.

Although they seemed determined to keep the baby and not be found, they didn't really have a well thought out plan...they seem to live a very chaotic lifestyle and make astoundingly poor decisions, and its unsurprising their previous children were removed.

At leats their other dc were identified as being at risk and saved it’s still awful but social services did a good job there

No, I think people have jumped to decide this for themselves

Unfortunately, as you know I think (?), someone doesnt have to be a drug addict to be an appalling parent.

Are people just guessing that they're addicts? (I thought the same)
I wondered if CM might be bipolar or have adhd too. Something that clouds her judgement.

I'm not sure if it was already mentioned but I read CM stayed in Nigeria for 6 months with a church cult... The church cult documentary is on BBC iPlayer and BBC sounds. Some UK members stayed there for 10 years before escaping... allegations of sexual, physical abuse and more.

I thought on previous threads it was claimed that she was fairly ok (ish) until she went away to Nigeria and then came back different and dumped all her friends.

Dont know how true that is.

If the baby was born dependent on opiates she would have been very ill and it would have been hard to hide that.
from what I've read they seem more 'freeman of the land' type extreme beliefs rather than heroin addiction (though that doesn't preclude drug use of course)

It’s clear that social services knew what a huge risk there was and acted appropriately to keep her other children safe but what could they have done about the poor baby I don’t think they would have expected her to run off like that - dp SS ever detain / section women when an unborn child is subject to CP concerns ? Is that something they have the power to do ? I guess it’s rare that This sort of thing happens so maybe there isn’t a prot for flight risk ?

*protocol

Seemingly she had concealed the pregnancy so they weren't able to act but no social services can't detain or section a pregnant woman. Police can section someone (not just for being pregnant and a flight risk though! Only if they meet the threshold) and remove children for 72 hours allowing social services to get an urgent court hearing. Usually such pregnancies are known about and court papers prepared in advance so they can be filed as soon as the baby is born. If the risk is so high that you are seeking removal at birth the hospital would call police if the parents removed the baby from hospital. It's rare to have a fully concealed pregnancy and birth.

That makes sense I hadn’t realised it was a fully concealed pregnancy , it’s just so tragic.

She was in the Nigerian Cult (SCOAN - Synagogue Church Of All Nations) for six months between 2006 - 2007. There is a very good documentary about the cult - run by T B Joshua, on Netflix at the moment. She seems to have managed to escape after six months but many in the documentary were caught up in it for 10+ years. He was big on recruiting white women from the UK it seems.

Undoubtedly it seems the experiences in the cult had a lasting effect on her, but she didn't meet Mark Gordon until 2016, while at Drama School in London. I believe it was at this point that she stopped contact with friends and family. So a good ten years later.

Personally I think there is probably some religious facet to all this... a Bible was found in their burnt out car for starters. But from what I have read so far there was absolutely despicable neglect of the baby Victoria with no clear motive other than wanting to evade Social Services.

If anyone is still following this I read that the children were taken off her after she fell out of a window and mark was blamed for this apparently? That’s the reason she claims the older children were taken and it seems like her family had been trying to involve social services for quite some time

Yes, I'm still following but haven't read that. It's just a big sad mess all round and such a pity the selfish pair brought poor innocent babies into their world. Thanks for the update as was wondering the latest info.