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?

'Whether in another life they might have been good parents separately if they had never met each other - who is to say? '

I doubt a rapist and someone who allegedly threw a women out of a window was ever going to be a good parent.

Yeah me neither. But it's basically what people are suggesting with the trauma/vulnerable/damaged narrative.

What is the programme called?

Her Mother sending her to Nigeria to join a religious order where the pastor used sexual assault as a teaching.

Just to your last point it does
sound simple. Keep away from him, keep the children. The reality is the women in these situations don’t keep away. My adopted child was finally removed when birth mum wouldn’t follow the safety plan social services had put in place for her, to keep herself and her child away from people that were dangerous to them. She continually prioritised her relationship with these people over the safety of her child and rightly lost her child. You cannot force someone to stop if they don’t want to.

You're suggesting they shouldn't be given a custodial sentence for causing the death of a baby?

I very much they do get "custodials." Partly to reflect what they have done. Partly so that they can't go away and have yet another baby. Another baby whom they also would be in no fit state to look after adequately.

"They've suffered enough"???

Thank you!!! I am ASTOUNDED by some of the responses on this thread.

Judging by the behaviour of both CM and MG documented in court and in court itself, I’m not sure the police force(s) could have done anything that would have had a better outcome. They are both arrogant, paranoid and unpleasant people. Even if the police and media had taken a much more softly softly approach I doubt they would have come forward and that baby Victoria would be saved. I hope their other children are happy and content and have plenty of support in the future when they inevitably find out about their biological parents and baby sister.

A PP mentioned the dumbest comment on this thread, there's certainly a few contender's for it.

I imagine he was controlling and violent and she was brainwashed and possibly afraid for her life.

My god, I don't think this at all. She almost seems the driving force in their relationship, and certainly not brainwashed, they are both as bad as each other

@Lavenderflower "I have not read all the post in this thread. My sense is that this child was going to to be removed from their parents and the parents got desperate."

You mean you've read fuck all about any of it!

But this can only work if the abuser is far far away... I've extensive professional experience with this group of folk.

The abusers convince them that they'll never survive solo...

The Aristocrat, the convict and the missing baby. A few posters should watch it before commenting further.

Kindly yes you are being unreasonable. I think many assumptions are being made about Constance but she caused her babies death and left her poor little body in a rubbish bag. They absconded from the authorities because the baby would have been removed from their care to protect her from them and rightly so. The police can’t tell someone they’re not going to be criminalised then only to arrest them at a later date. You can’t lie to people. The police did everything they could to get their image into the media so the public may recognise them. Those two had no intention of bringing her back. There will be a review of the polices actions there always is when a person who is missing, particularly a child dies. If there is any learning it will be considered and I know every police officer involved in the search for her will ask themselves if there was anything else they could have done to save her. The responsibility of looking for a missing baby who is likely to come to harm is just about the heaviest weight to bear of any job I can think of. I bet those in charge of that case hardly slept. That poor baby.

I’m not excusing what they did, but it does sound as though CM had a strange teenage life, as least. Being left in a cult, or at least allowed to stay in one, where people were brainwashed and sexually assaulted. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce77wd5ne60o
Him, apparently, sexually abused at nursery school, at age 4.

That’s the trouble with how society deals with damage to people. They often damage others, because they are damaged themselves, and mostly often not helped until it’s too late. It’s depressing really.

I’ve no sympathy at all. Reading about it makes me so upset. Some people just should not be parents.

Thank you and its on Bbc iplayer ?

There was no suggestion that she experienced that herself.
She'd have been straight out of the starting blocks with it in court if there had been. Her martyr act is very well developed.

Yeah iPlayer.

My friend is several years into adopting a child via a forced adoption and maintaining contact with the mother is very much part of the process.

Do you send Christmas cards to the Wests by any chance?

I read same article this morning and thought "nah, fuck the pair of these arrogant, deluded, shameless tossers".

If anything, a long prison sentence might actually be doing her a favour since it will remove her from his contaminating, dangerous influence for a good spell. If nothing else, by the time she's released, hopefully she'll be too old to bring any more unfortunate children into the world. No such luck with him, of course. Chemical castration would be too good for the likes of him.

I hope their four surviving children are safe and happy in their new homes.

At the very least, living in that environment for 4 months as a teenager would be distressing, traumatic and have an impact on her emotionally. She reached out to someone else who had lived at the church to help process what had gone on there and said she didn't think people would believe her.

I'd be keen to, but I don't have a TV licence (no TV) so iPlayer is off limits.

The BBC have reported that she was a rebel at school before she went to Nigeria. Even in her school photographs she's pulling faces. To me it seems she was someone who always thought the rules didn't apply to them.