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

[Siff]

I know Constance Marten and her partner made dangerous and illegal choices, and I’m not excusing that — a baby died and that’s heartbreaking. But I can’t stop thinking about the way the case was handled and whether the police have some responsibility in how things unfolded.

As a mum of four who’s struggled mentally after birth, I keep thinking: if I had just given birth, was vulnerable, and felt like the whole world was hunting me down — would I have thought clearly? Probably not. The media coverage was intense, and the police were everywhere. The pressure must have been overwhelming.

I honestly believe the fear created by the police operation pushed them into making more and more desperate and risky decisions to stay hidden. It wasn’t just a search — it felt like a witch hunt. No safeguarding, no attempt to reach her as a vulnerable mother, just a hard push to capture and punish.

I think that approach had consequences. The police must take some responsibility for creating the kind of fear and pressure that led to this tragedy. The way they went about it likely made things worse — not better — for the baby.

It’s easy to say she was selfish or unstable, but mental health in the postnatal period is fragile. People don’t always think rationally when terrified. I just wish there had been more humanity in how it was all handled.
Anyone else feel the same?

Social services would have assessed her family members if they had been willing to take the children.

For whatever reason the family didnt take the children.

So then what? Nowadays there is a huge push for what you call "open adoptions" in that there is ongoing contact of some sort.

This has been the case for a very long time. I adopted in 2001 and the importance of birth family knowledge and contact was taken very seriously even then.

The reason adoptions fail is largely because of the damage done pre placement. Foetal alcohol syndrome is a massive problem for example. Babies being born drug addicted. Neglect and abuse.

Social services don't just walk in on random families and remove their children. There is always a trail of concerns, from family, neighbours, doctors, school.

Does anyone know when sentencing is?

I agree. I also think that lots of us have a strong impulse to want to see them sympathetically because the reality is too awful and hard to get your head round.
The reality is that both of them regarded their child as a throwaway object, just a means to an end, they had no parental or nurturing instincts whatsoever. This is horrifying and abhorrent to a normal caring parent.

What a fucked up family

my thoughts are with the four children living in care

I don't think that her privilege especially comes into it. Money or not, people can still suffer from the same mental health issues and childhood traumas. I think that it's an oversimplification to see her as an arrogant rich girl. She hasn't taken any accountability for her actions and has been extremely defensive. Nothing is her fault and she is certainly not a likeable character. But knowing what I do about people with paranoid personality traits, this is a common part of a complex mental health condition. It's hard to know how much control she had over her warped and damaged mind. It's very easy to judge her choices by the standards of normal people, but she clearly wasn't. She does deserve to have some responsibility, which is why i am pleased with the decision.

My opinion stays as previously posted. So many harsh and nasty views on here.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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’

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.

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

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

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

Is this a joke?

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.

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

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

They bear no responsibility for what that evil pair did.

OMG. Dumbest comment of the year?

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.

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.

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.

Constance you aren't in any trouble.

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