"Two parents who caused the death of their newborn baby after taking her to live in a tent in wintry conditions to evade social services have each been sentenced to 14 years in prison. Constance Marten and Mark Gordon went off the grid in late-2022; their four older children having previously been taken into care due to concerns for their safety if left with the couple."
"Sentencing them on Monday, the judge, Mark Lucraft, told them: What you did towards baby Victoria can only be described as neglect; neglect of the gravest and most serious type. And the recorder of London added: There has been no genuine expression of remorse from either of you. While he said they had expressed sadness, they had adopted the stance of trying to blame everyone else."
"Gordon and Marten spent seven weeks on the run before they were found by police in Brighton, East Sussex. Officers had launched a nationwide hunt after finding the couple's burnt-out car on a motorway near Bolton, Greater Manchester, on 5 January 2023. In it was evidence that the baby, Victoria, had been born shortly beforehand. The couple travelled across England in taxis with the newborn; eventually ending up in the countryside near Brighton."
Two parents were convicted of manslaughter after their newborn daughter, Victoria, died while the couple lived off the grid to evade social services. Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were each sentenced to 14 years in prison, with Gordon also receiving four years on extended licence. The pair had prior convictions related to perverting the course of justice, concealing a birth and child cruelty. They spent seven weeks on the run after police found their burnt-out car, and Victoria's remains were later discovered in a Lidl bag in a disused shed, too decomposed to determine a definitive cause of death, though prosecution cited hypothermia. The judge described the conduct as the gravest neglect and noted a lack of genuine remorse.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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