Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been jailed for a total of 28 years after they were convicted of killing their baby.

Marten, 38, who is from a wealthy family, and her partner Gordon, 51, were each handed sentences of 14 years at the Old Bailey on Monday.

Latest updates from the sentencing

They went on the run with their newborn daughter, Victoria, to get away from social services after their four other children were taken into care.

Victoria’s body was found with rubbish inside a Lidl shopping bag in the corner of an allotment in Brighton on 1 March 2023.

The pair had been the subject of a nationwide manhunt for 54 days.

Read more:
Why did Constance Marten and Mark Gordon go on the run?
How the runaway couple killed their baby

‘No genuine expression of remorse’

Judge Mark Lucraft told the pair during sentencing that “neither of you gave much or any thought to the care or welfare of your baby”.

“Your focus was on yourselves,” he said, before adding: “There has been no genuine expression of remorse from either of you.

“Whilst there have been expressions of sorrow about the death throughout, you’ve adopted the stance of seeking to blame everyone else other than yourselves for what happened.”

Sky’s home affairs reporter Henry Vaughan reported that neither showed much emotion during sentencing, and that after they stood up, Gordon stared at Marten as she left the dock.

They were both convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence following a second trial at the Old Bailey.

They had previously been found guilty of perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, and child cruelty after an Old Bailey trial lasting almost five months.

A second trial was ordered after the first jury failed to reach a verdict on the manslaughter charges.

Marten is now seeking permission to appeal against her conviction for manslaughter. A previous application to appeal her conviction of cruelty to a child was rejected in February this year.

Both trials were hampered by disruption and delays, taking up more than 33 weeks of court time, which – at an estimated £30,000 per defendant a day – could have cost in the region of £10m.

A search for Marten and Gordon was launched after a placenta was found in the couple’s burnt-out car on a motorway in Bolton in January 2023.

Marten said they went on the run so their fifth child would not be removed from them after her other children were “stolen by the state”.

The couple spent vast sums of cash from her family trust fund on taxi journeys as they travelled from Bolton, to Liverpool, to Harwich in Essex, to London and then to Newhaven on the south coast.

Baby’s clothing inadequate, judge says

Prosecutors said the baby was inadequately clothed in a babygrow and that Marten had got wet as she carried the infant underneath her coat, alleging Victoria died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping.

Judge Lucraft said that while Marten and Gordon claimed they wanted dignity for Victoria’s body, their “conduct showed the opposite”.

He also said the baby had died by 12 January 2023, and that the couple then concealed her and perverted the course of justice before her “decomposed body” was found.

“When you were arrested,” the court heard, “neither of you was willing to give any assistance to the police about the whereabouts of your daughter’s body.

“Your silence at that stage of events is highly significant.”

Met Police Detective Chief Inspector Joanna Yorke, who led the investigation, said the couple’s “selfish actions” resulted in the death of Victoria, “who would have recently had her second birthday and should have had the rest of her life ahead of her”.

She added: “We know today’s sentencing won’t bring Victoria back, but I am pleased our investigation has resulted in the couple who caused her death finally being brought to justice.”

Prosecutors have dropped charges against two men, including a former parliamentary researcher, who had been accused of spying for China.

Christopher Cash, 30, and Christopher Berry, 33, had both denied accusations of providing information prejudicial to the interests of the state in breach of the Official Secrets Act between December 2021 and February 2023.

It was alleged they obtained, recorded and published information “for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the state” and which could be “directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy”.

They were due to go on trial next month, but prosecutor Tom Little told London’s Old Bailey they would offer no evidence against the pair.

He said: “We simply cannot continue to prosecute.”

A spokesperson for the Home Office said it was “disappointing” the pair would not face trial “given the seriousness of the allegations”.

They said the decision was made by the Crown Prosecution Service “entirely independently of government”.

“National security is the first duty of government and we remain steadfast in upholding this responsibility,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue to use the full range of tools and powers to guard against malign activity.”

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: “In accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors, the evidence in this case has been kept under continuous review and it has now been determined that the evidential standard for the offence indicted is no longer met. No further evidence will be offered.”

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Mr Cash’s lawyer said his client was “entirely innocent and should never have been arrested, let alone charged”.

Speaking outside court, Mr Cash said: “While I am relieved that justice has been served today, the last two and a half years have been a nightmare for me and my family.”

He said he hoped “lessons are learned from this sorry episode”.

China had dismissed the charges as “self-staged political farce”.

Mr Cash previously worked as a parliamentary researcher and was closely linked to senior Tories including former security minister Tom Tugendhat and Alicia Kearns, who served as chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.

He was director of the China Research Group, which was chaired by Mr Tugendhat and then Ms Kearns.

Mr Berry has worked in various teaching posts in China since September 2015.

New evidence has emerged of earlier opportunities to have stopped the Southport attacker before he was able to murder three young girls, according to the lawyer representing their families.

The parents of Bebe King, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Alice da Silva Aguiar will today give evidence to the inquiry which was set up to establish firstly how Axel Rudakubana was able to carry out the attack last July and also to identify lessons to avoid a repeat.

In July, a major review found the government’s Prevent counter-terrorism scheme missed an opportunity to intervene in Rudakubana’s life and potentially turn him away from violence.

Officials with Prevent had been warned three times by teachers that Rudakubana was obsessed with violence – but the case was closed on each occasion because he was not found to have a terrorist ideology.

Now, the lawyer representing the families of Bebe, Elsie and Alice has told Sky News “significant” evidence is emerging of earlier opportunities to have identified Rudakubana as a threat.

Chris Walker said: “We know there have been failings with the Prevent process but, as we are delving deeper and the deeper into the evidence which has been disclosed to us continuously, it is becoming apparent that there were more opportunities and more failings before the Prevent failings.

“It would be inappropriate for me to comment on what exactly those are at this stage. It is evident that the problems with him occurred several years before the Prevent system failed.”

Mr Walker said the families wanted “individual accountability, systemic accountability and systemic reform” to come from the inquiry and an understanding of how and why mistakes occurred.

“We can’t have a system which is designed to prevent evil murderers committing tragedies of this nature being able to continue with their conduct because of individual errors,” he said.

“The system must be robust enough to absorb individual errors to ensure these tragedies will never happen again.”

The Southport inquiry, chaired by Sir Adrian Fulford, was set up to examine the circumstances surrounding the attack and the events leading up to it. It will examine Rudakubana’s history and interactions with local services and agencies and their decision-making and information-sharing.

Rudakubana is serving a life sentence with a minimum of 52 years for murdering six year old Bebe, Elsie, who was seven, and Alice, aged nine, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance event.

He seriously injured eight more girls and two adults who had tried to stop him.

Between 2019 and 2021 teachers reported him three times to Prevent under a national duty to alert police and other agencies to potential extremists. On each occasion his case was rejected.

Read more:
The missed chances to stop Rudakubana
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The injury has already heard evidence from the parents of other children about the life-changing impact on them of what happened inside the dance studio on 29 July last year.

Families ‘cannot grieve’

For the parents of Bebe, Elsie and Alice, Mr Walker said, the process has been a difficult one.

“The families remain traumatised. It has been approximately 14 months since this horrific attack occurred. Within that time they’ve conducted themselves with dignity and, as a consequence of that, they present extremely well.

“The reality is when they close their front door they remain traumatised and this inquiry is going to continue with that traumatisation for another 12 months, at least, so they’ve not been able to start the next stage of their grieving process.

“But the families are committed to the inquiry. They appreciate and understand the significance of it and the reason for it and they remain committed.”