RedHanded - Episode 366 - Constance Marten & Mark Gordon

Episode Date: September 12, 2024

When the body of a weeks-old baby was found in a plastic bag in a shed, covered in soil and rubbish, it marked the end of one of the UK’s strangest and most tragic criminal manhunts. The baby’s parents were Constance Marten and Mark Gordon – an aristocratic heiress and an American convicted rapist.As a jury wrestled for months over the couple’s guilt, more and more shocking details came out. Details of nights spent in a cheap tent out on the freezing moors. Of Gordon’s brutal criminal history. And the heartbreaking image that stuck in the nation’s mind more than anything else: the accusation that the baby had spent its short life carried around, in the depths of winter, in nothing but a plastic shopping bag.Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramXVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Red Handed early and ad-free. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. They say Hollywood is where dreams are made. A seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hannah.

I'm Saruti. And welcome to Red Handed. We've been keeping an eye on this one. And it's still not over. No. So we decided to just bite the bullet and give you what we've got. Exactly. Which is actually quite a lot.

It is. It's actually a really long script, so let's get on with it. On the 5th of January last year, two faces hit the front pages of every newspaper in the country. This country, in case that wasn't clear. There were a couple, Constance Martin and Mark Gordon. She was an aristocratic heiress whose family has close links to the royal family, and he was an American convicted rapist, 13 years her senior. A tale as old as time. These two had been on the run from the police since their car exploded into flames on the side of a motorway in the north of England.

And this manhunt had an extra dose of urgency because Constance Martin had been heavily pregnant. And inside the burnt-out wreckage of that car that exploded, police found a placenta. I'd forgotten that bit. Yeah. It's real grim, guys. Wherever they were, Constance

and Mark were carrying a freshly born baby who desperately needed medical care. Don't like the word freshly in front of baby. But, yeah, it's a lot. who desperately needed medical care. Don't like the word freshly. In front of baby. But, yeah, it's a lot. And the entire nation waited with bated breath as police worked desperately to find the infant

and make sure that it was safe. The couple were spotted in every corner of the country. And after 53 days of a nationwide search, Constance and Mark were finally arrested. But their baby wasn't with them. After a frantic few more days, its body was eventually found in a shed, pale and freezing cold, in a plastic bag bag covered in earth and rubbish. In a mammoth 15-month court case, stranger and stranger details came to light. Reports of Constance's powerful aristocratic family using their influence to snatch her children away.

The unbelievably callous and brutal extent of Mark Gordon's previous crimes, committed when he was just 14 years old, details of nights spent in a cheap tent out on the freezing moors, and the tragic image that stuck in the nation's mind more than anything else. The accusation that the baby had spent its short life carried around in the depths of winter and nothing more than a plastic shopping bag. For the jury, this boiled down to one central question. Was this couple guilty of the manslaughter of their weeks-old baby? Or had they been unfairly dogged around the country, tracked by sinister elites

and discriminated against for their alternative lifestyle? It's a question which, in the end, proved just too much. And, as I've alluded to, this is a case that actually is still very much unfinished. And now that the first trial is finally over, it seems like the best time for us to cover it. But we are jumping way ahead of ourselves. Let's rewind a bit.

The first thing you really need to understand to make sense of this story is the backgrounds of the two runaways at the heart of it. Constance Martin and Mark Gordon. They couldn't be more different. Constance was born rich. And not just like two Land Rovers rich. Not even hedge fund collection of watches rich. We're talking landed gentry.

Yeah, I can't remember which comedian says it. It's like, it's not rich, it's wealth. You can blow rich on like a cocaine habit in a weekend. It's not rich, it's like it's not rich it's wealth you can blow rich on like a cocaine habit in a weekend it's not rich it's wealth generational deep deep deep aristocratic wealth we're talking about here yeah i think i recently i mean this is probably not true but if it's not true it's not my fault apparently the phrase stinking rich comes from people who could afford to be buried above ground, like to put them in tombs, basically. So they couldn't be snatched, but then you could smell them.

Well, whether it's true or not, that's what I'm going to choose to believe. Yeah, exactly. So yes, Constance Martin was stinking wealthy. She was the heiress to one of the country's most prominent aristocratic families. Her lineage stretches all the way back to the first Baron Allington, a conservative politician who was given his title for his success as a slum landlord in the east end of London. As well as prestige, the other thing that landed gentry need to be landed is land, duh. And Baron Allington's own slice of the country was the 17th century Critchell House in Dorset. The house bit is quite misleading because really Critchell House

is a 5,000 acre country estate with more than 50 cottages, a chapel and an ornamental lake. The title and country estate was passed down through generations until it got to the third Baron Allington. Now, we definitely don't have time to get into him, but he was quite a character too. Described as a, quote, well-cultivated bisexual with censorous, meaty lips. A distant, antic charm.

A history of mysterious disappearances and a streak of cruelty. Who described him as that fucking Byron? Don't know. Maybe he wrote it about himself. Still, when old meaty lips died, serving with the RAF without a male heir, the title went extinct. Critchell House passed to his 11-year-old daughter, Mary. And title or no title, Mary had some pretty hardcore aristocratic chops. Little Mary's godmother was the Queen Mother herself. And she went to brownies with Princess Margaret. That's mental.

Yeah. Mary had two children, Charlotte and Napier. Now, Napier is the important one for our story, but a very quick word on Charlotte, his sister. Because what's a fancy family name without a touch of fascism? Charlotte Napier married the son of Oswald Moseley. And if you don't know who that is, he was basically Britain's kind of Hitler.

He was the leader of the British Union of Fascists. He's in Peaky Blinders. Yeah. So Charlotte married Oswald Alexander Moseley, the son of Oswald Moseley and Diana Mitford. I'm obsessed with Diana Mitford. And if you're not scandalised by this connection to Moseley and the Mitfords, boy, do we have a shorthand coming for you very soon. Eyes and ears peeled. But anyway, back to Napier Martin, Mary's son. He very much followed

in his mother's super duper fancy golden footsteps. He was a page boy to Queen Elizabeth II herself, our late queen. And he inherited the family's £115 million fortune. And we're going to stick with Napier, even though I'm absolutely desperate to talk about the Mitfords. I love them. That's wrong. I don't love them. I love the story. It's a really interesting story. There's three sisters, and one's a fascist, one's a communist, and one is a one-in-a-generation author. Sounds like the start of a terrible joke. We're going to stick with Napier Martin for now. He married psychotherapist Virginie de Selyer in 1986,

and their first silver-spooned spawn was Constance Dorothea Martin. She was born in 1987 and was followed by two younger brothers, Maximilian and Tobias. The children were raised across the sprawling grounds of Critchell House. And we're telling you all of this, not just because it's fun to remember

that the aristocracy still exists, but mainly what we're doing is trying to show that this is the type of family that Constance Martin was born into. One with an absolutely bonkers, beyond belief, 5,000 acre country estate kind of privilege. Plus, no doubt, all of the messy inter-familial baggage that comes with an estate like that. To give you an idea of what we're dealing with, Critchell House today is worth more than £34 million. And it was actually the backdrop for Emma that starred Gwyneth Paltrow. Constance's

childhood home has an honest-to-god ballroom. Now, you could say that there are at least two kinds of poshers. Those who buy into the upper class horse dancing gilet wearing life a hundred percent and those who say they're railing against it go to art school and try and hide their roots harder than edginger goth but i was watching as i said on under the duvet the talented mr ripley yesterday and obviously there are the posh shows and the rich shows that are like oh well i hate it i'm like have you cut yourself off from money because if you haven't just enjoy it you don't have to try convince me yeah if i was born with that much money i'd be like fuck yeah yeah i yeah i went to university we used to call them trustafarians yeah um and i went to university with a girl who went on every

climate change protest you could imagine but flew a a private jet to New York twice a year. Oh, she did. Of course she did. I'm very familiar with these types of people. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either, until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life.

I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness, and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more. Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

They say Hollywood is where dreams are made, a seductive city where many flock to get rich, be adored, and capture America's heart. But when the spotlight turns off, fame, fortune, and lives can disappear in an instant. When TV producer Roy Radin was found dead in a canyon near L.A. in 1983, there were many questions surrounding his death. The last person seen with him was Lainey Jacobs, a seductive cocaine dealer who desperately wanted to be part of the Hollywood elite. Together, they were trying to break into the movie industry. But things took

a dark turn when a million dollars worth of cocaine and cash went missing. From Wondery comes a new season of the hit show Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club Murder. Follow Hollywood and Crime, The Cotton Club firmly in the latter camp. But she wasn't actually the first Martin to break with tradition. Her own father, Napier Martin, had had his very own little eat, pray, love moment. In 1996, when Constance was nine, Napier realised that, quote, everything in my life materially was a completely empty shell.

He said he then heard a voice telling him to leave his inheritance and fly to Australia. So Napier Martin shaved his head, shacked up with a group of indigenous people, and while there, had a life-changing out-of-body experience. Now, we're not exactly sure what epiphanies Napier Martin had about his life, the universe and everything, But about six years later, he gave Critchall House, totally, to his son Maximilian and moved to Australia for good. So it's fair to say that a little bohemian streak had entered the Martin dynasty. And if you only take one thing from this story, let it be this. Beware the uber-wealthy second

generation hippies. Yeah, it's a lot easier to realize how meaningless material possessions are when you have them yeah i think uh look it's nobody's fault if they're obviously born with no money and it's nobody's fault if they're born with tons of money but i do find some of the things that are said by incredibly not even incredibly wealthy just middle class people and it's this like term called luxury beliefs. And this kind of idea that like money doesn't matter is definitely one of them. Anyway, let's get back to Constance. She went to a boarding school, unsurprisingly, called St. Mary's Shaftesbury, a Roman Catholic school for girls with annual fees of more than

£30,000 a year. She once said in a Facebook post that her interests included naked picnics, siestas amid hay bales and tractor scoops. And I will defend Constance here because people give her a lot of shit for that. I'm like, if you dug out the kind of shit I was writing on Facebook when I was a teenager... Why do you think I've deleted it? We're all embarrassed. So yes, whatever.

And then she followed in Jamie Lang's footsteps and went to Leeds in 2008. She got a 2.1 in Arabic and Middle Eastern studies. And while still a student, she was named Tatler's Babe of the Month. Ah! That is so... Look, I'm going to gonna that's kind of iconic and tatler if you don't know is a magazine that's ancient and it's all about the highest of high society in the babe of the month write-up constance described cider as one of her five a day after she graduated she moved to london

got her nctj and worked as a researcher for Al Jazeera. So yeah, I do think it's worth saying, like, Constance Martin is kind of made out as this kind of aristocratic airhead a lot. And we are going to see that obviously she does take a quite sharp dive off a fucking cliff very soon, metaphorically speaking. But like, in her early days, she's not a stupid person. No. She's got a 2-1 in arabic and middle eastern studies and she's working as a proper journalist like she is doing things with her life she could very easily just have stayed at critical house and not worked a day in her life

oh absolutely between summer holidays in the alps constance also went on trips across africa and asia both to report for al jazeera and also to volunteer as an aid worker instead. Constance actually happened to be in Egypt working as a photojournalist during the 2011 Egyptian revolution. So that's kind of a very quick rundown of Constance Martin's early life. And yeah, like how people might feel about her is probably quite conflicted, especially if you know how this story continues and ends. But you might have, all of you listening, met someone like this, someone who grew up around money, but who's independent, fun loving and determined not to let her wealth define her. Someone who wants to experience the world in all its complexity

and help in any way that she can. So however you feel, I think Constance Martin, despite having been born into an incredibly privileged family, at this point hasn't really done anything worthy of derision, despite what people say online about her. But then... Yeah. On a trip to Lagos, Nigeria, reportedly, reportedly, allegedly, reportedly,

Constance spent six months living at the synagogue, Church of All Nations. The Wikipedia page for the SCOAN, I was going to try and say that, not going to. It's called a charismatic Christian megachurch. But it's a synagogue yeah it's quite common for charismatic mega churches um to be very aligned with the old testament therefore the torah therefore therefore sure um because that's when god's nuts and more like fire and brimstone and divisive and partisan and all of those things and then in the new testament they're like yeah's all right, don't worry about it. Anyway, charismatic Christian megachurch

will make most people ring the cult wind chime in their head. And even a cursory look into its leader, someone called T.B. Joshua, reveals decades of systematic abuse and even torture in the name of the church. Napier Martin, Constance's dad, not only believes that Constance was abused while she was in Nigeria, but also it set her up to a life of, quote, easy manipulation.

Which I really don't think he is far off with that analysis because Hannah and I, we have obviously been doing this for a very long time, talking about true crime, and we also wrote a book, Paperback Now Out. Go check it out. And we also did a short-lived series called Sinister Societies where we talked about cults for a long time. And one of the things we discovered over the years is that when people join cults, it literally destroys your personality. It breaks down your personality and it can lead you to kind of actually mimic or develop a personality disorder, namely borderline personality. So it is not wrong to think that joining a cult or ending up in a cult and being abused in one like

that could lead to somebody's total personality being transformed. And whether or not you believe, Napier, six months is a long time to live at a charismatic Christian megachurch and come out totally unscathed. So when Constance got back to the UK in 2016, after her time in Lagos, she enrolled at a drama school in Essex. And she did well there. Old teachers and students all remember her as having a natural talent. She made a great circle of friends and often went out with her classmates. I bet her parents were fucking relieved.

But then, she met a man named Mark Gordon. They bumped into each other, and what is reported in some places as an incense shop, or even an Indian shop. But generally, it seems to have been some sort of new-agey alternative therapies, healing crystals kind of place.

The shopkeeper accused Mark of stealing. He probably was. And Constance defended him. They went for a coffee and found that they shared an identical worldview. Then they travelled the world together. A few years later, they even got married in a ceremony in Peru, though it was never legally recognised in the UK. Constance's friends never met Mark. And slowly, after Constance met him, she started to break contact with everybody she knew.

She stopped going out, she stopped talking to people, she permanently cut ties with most of her family, and she even dropped out of drama school. The couple lived in various flats in various suburbs of London, and then they moved into a camper van. And within a few years, they were living in a tent surrounded by bottles of piss. The piss comes up a lot. It does, doesn't it?

There's a lot of piss in this story. Apologies in advance. So, we might as well get into it. We know about Constance. Who the fuck is Mark Gordon? Well, Mark Gordon was born in Birmingham, UK, but he grew up across the pond in Florida. Now, we don't know a huge amount about his family or his early childhood, but everything from the age of 14 and up is pretty well documented because it was then that Mark, barely a teenager, was imprisoned for two decades for armed kidnap and rape. On the 29th of April 1989, in his neighbourhood of Broward County, Mark Gordon entered a neighbour's home through her bathroom

window. He was armed with a kitchen knife and garden shears, and because she knew him, he covered his face with a nylon stocking. Gordon started creeping across the hall to his neighbour's bedroom, but her dog started barking and woke her up. So she came to her bedroom door to see him lurking there in the hall, breathing heavily, with a fucking pair of tights over his head, holding out the garden shears. He told her to go back into her bedroom and ordered this adult woman, who was his neighbour, to undress. He is 14 years old.

There, Mark Gordon proceeded to rape this woman and he held her captive for the next four and a half hours, while her two young children were sleeping in the room next door. Just after his 15th birthday,

Mark Gordon was charged with six offences, one count of armed kidnapping, four separate counts of armed sexual battery, and one count of burglary with a deadly weapon. But shortly after his arrest, he went on the run, and just three weeks after his previous break-in, he attempted to rob another home, just six doors down from the first. That time he went in armed with a flat-headed shovel and once inside picked up some kitchen knives. He crept into a bedroom upstairs and when the man sleeping there woke up, Gordon furiously beat him around the head and body.

He served 20 years in a Florida prison. When he was released in 2010 at the age of just 35, he was deported back to the UK. And now we're going to skip ahead a bit, because the ins and outs of Constance and Mark's next few years became pretty contentious. So for now, to keep things simple, let's carry on with the story as seen from the outside.

The first time Constance Martin came into contact with NHS professionals, she was living in a camper van and she was six months pregnant. We'll also return to this, but by this time, Constance was certain that her family was sending investigators to take her baby away. So she was living off-grid in an effort to stop that from happening. She told NHS staff her name was Isabella Bryant and claimed to be from the Irish travelling community. And she even put on a fake Irishy accent to steal the deal because, you know, she's been to drama school. She liked to act.

And Mark Gordon also, you know, needed a fake name apparently. So he went by the name James Ammer. And we do have to wonder, did he just shorten the word American and use it as his fake surname? James American, James Ammer. We don't know.

But it is his Susie QAnon moment. Now Constance Martin also told authorities that she'd never been to school and didn't have an NHS number. And as part of their traveller cosplay, the pair even claimed benefits, hoping it would give them easier access to social housing. But social services could smell something fishy,

and it wasn't just the grotty old camper van or the bottles of piss. So they issued a National Hospital Alert to other parts of the NHS, which is essentially used to give the NHS network a heads up that a pregnant woman needs protection or support. When the time came, the couple turned up at a hospital in Wales in the dead of winter, and Constance was admitted as an unbooked case, which just means that she'd received no NHS antenatal care during her pregnancy. She was booked in under the name Isabella, and she even kept up the accent all the way through childbirth. Fucking hell. Which is actually kind of impressive.

But their real identities were quickly figured out and the police were called. Constance told the police that she'd moved to Wales to escape from her family. By this point, the couple had left the campervan and were living in the piss tent in some Welsh woodland. The tent was described by officials as festival style, which is very much not for raising a baby in the dead of winter. So they mean summer tent is what they mean, surely. Yeah, I think they mean like, you know, flimsy, like recreational. Yeah. Not for the dead of winter.

Yeah, not a yurt. No, not a Mongolian y yurt despite the fact that constance martin probably had one of those in her garage yeah we had one at uni they're outside the green and i believe the students union actually bought two and the mongolian farmers were like you can fuck off mate here's one so it would be a site of much debauchery. And then a homeless couple moved in and had a baby in it, so they had to throw it away. I was going to say, it sounds grimy. Oh, yeah, it was.

No, no thanks. Anyway, inside the festival-style tent were nappies and baby clothes. And one report read that the tent was, quote, bowed under the weight of rainwater and smelled stale. The blankets inside were cold and damp. There were bottles of urine at the entrance to the tent was, quote, bowed under the weight of rainwater and smelled stale. The blankets inside were cold and damp. There were bottles of urine at the entrance to the tent. Constance told the authorities that they were naturalists and they shouldn't judge her alternative lifestyle.

So, yeah, this becomes a big part of Constance Martin's kickbacks at authorities, right? She is like, why am I being persecuted just because i want to live off the grid live this alternative lifestyle like i should be allowed in this free country to live however the fuck i want why am i being hounded oh it's because my rich aristocratic family are using the police and social services in order to come after me to steal my babies that is her entire mindset she saying, don't judge my alternative lifestyle, which to be fair, bottles of piss aside, yeah, I guess we should keep that in mind because the baby we're talking about here is not the baby at the centre of this case. But this idea

goes on to be very crucial later on when we get to the trial. We have to make sure we're only judging the duty of care here that Constance Martin and Mark Gordon have towards their children because lots of parents raise their kids in all sorts of ways. We're not sitting here saying that, you know, you shouldn't bring your kids up in a camper van or in a mobile home or even in tents if that's something you can do. But this idea of intentionally being out in the freezing woods with barely any supplies in a quote-unquote festival tent that's damp and stale and covered in piss is definitely concerning so yeah i'm just being very careful to like unpick the two people can live alternative lifestyles but that's not really

yeah this isn't here she just claims no ipad you know yeah she just's not really what is going on here. She just claims it. No iPad, you know. Yeah. She just claims that's what's going on. He was hip hop's biggest mogul, the man who redefined fame, fortune and the music industry. The first male rapper to be honored on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Sean Diddy Combs. Diddy built an empire and lived a life most people only dream about. Everybody know ain't no party like a Diddy party, so. Yeah, that's what's up. But just as quickly as his empire rose, it came crashing down.

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We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in U.S. history. Presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our latest series, NASA embarks on an ambitious program to reinvent space exploration with the launch of its first reusable vehicle, the Space Shuttle. And in 1985, they announced they're sending teacher Krista McAuliffe into space aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, along with six other astronauts. But less than two minutes after liftoff, the Challenger explodes. And in the tragedy's aftermath, investigators uncover a series of preventable failures by NASA and its contractors that led to the disaster. Follow American Scandal on the Wondery app or wherever you get your

podcasts. Experience all episodes ad-free and be the first to binge the newest season only on Wondery Plus. You can join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial today. So yeah, their first baby, and remember this is not the baby at the center of it, was referred to as FF and was made subject to an interim care order. That meant that Constance lived with FF in temporary mother and baby accommodation. The baby was allowed to be cared for by Martin and Gordon, but only under the supervision of social services. Constance and the baby were eventually discharged after a year in 2018,

when a social worker said that she had no concerns for the welfare of the child. But before long, Constance was pregnant again. But in amongst all of that, there does appear to have been a period of relative calm. Constance remembers this time quite fondly. All of them were together in their own house, as a family planning for the future. And in the garden, Constance planted a seed for every family member to grow with the family. She had regular contact sessions, and her conduct was marked as excellent. In the garden, Constance planted a seed for every family member to grow with the family. She had regular contact sessions and her conduct was marked as excellent. But at some point during this period of time, Constance's dad, Napier Martin, made an application for wardship,

essentially to become the baby's official carer and take them away from Constance. It wasn't granted, but it did kick off another social services investigation. During a period of observation, Constance failed or refused to turn up to meetings. Sometimes she'd do that for months at a time. Once, when Constance didn't turn up to a planned session, one of the kids became withdrawn before crying inconsolably saying, Mummy and Daddy cancelled again. During one visit by social services, Constance was heavily pregnant again and she hadn't told anyone. So she hid behind a door and shouted at the authorities that they were being draconian. When she finally gave birth to that child, her fourth in four years, Constance was invited to a court appearance while still in hospital.

Doctors said that the baby wasn't ready to be discharged, but that Constance could attend via video link. They said if she left, it would be marked as an abandonment, but leave the child she did. When she returned and refused to take a COVID test, this was in late 2020, so full pandemic mode, she was refused entry. Then in February 2021, a family court judge ordered that all four children should be adopted out. He said that Constance clearly loved her children, but that her conduct fell well below what was expected from parents to care for their children.

A quick word here on the care system in this country. Because Constance's fear is that merciless bureaucrats employed by government agencies, with their palms freshly greased by her influential parents, were hell-bent on taking her kids away. And we should say that absolutely a child being with their parent is the best-case scenario for everyone if it is in any way possible. And while the UK care system certainly has its issues, and we've covered a bunch of them, the aim is almost always to keep families together yeah i mean whether you believe this or

not like bureaucratically it's easier and cheaper for the state if they can keep families together like constance is convinced that the system is out to get her she has a big persecution complex she is absolutely hell-bent on the idea that her wealthy family are trying to steal her children. But the thing is, the children that she has get adopted out. The Martins want those children, but they can't even get them. So it's like, what are they doing? Manipulating the system in order to get those children taken away from Constance just so they can be adopted by other people?

Like, it kind of feels redundant even breaking down these things as not being true but that is Constance's mindset. She just refused to believe that anyone was trying to help her. In 2022 with her four previous children having been taken away Constance Martin became pregnant for the fifth time and she was not going to let social services take it. So, on December 20th, 2022, Constance Martin and Mark Gordon went on the run again. Constance did everything she could to keep her pregnancy a secret, from any remaining family that she was in contact with to all medical authorities. But then, at 6.33m on the 5th of january motorists on the m61 near bolton saw a huge explosion on the side of the road greater manchester police were called to the

scene and found the still burning wreckage of a peugeot 206 and the hard shoulder there was no sign of anyone when they extinguished the flames and searched the car, they found Constance Martin's passport and a collection of burner phones. And then they found a placenta, wrapped in a towel, surrounded by, quote, other signs of childbirth. Bags of clothing and nappies were found discarded in a nearby field, and the discovery of a relatively new placenta in an exploded car on the M61, with Constance's passport handily in the glove box, kicked the investigation up a gear. The child had been born, and its parents, who had a long record of neglect,

had taken it on the run. Most of their belongings had also been destroyed by the fire, and it was the middle of winter. In mid-January 2023, Napier Martin made a statement to the press. It was an emotional speech, appealing directly to Constance to bring her baby in. My name is Napier Martin. I am grateful for this opportunity to appeal directly to my daughter Constance, following the public revelations concerning her partner, Mark Gordon, and having lived with the family in great concern, knowing of his past record for some time.

Darling Constance, even though we remain estranged at the moment, I stand by, as I have always done and as the family has always done, to do whatever is necessary for your safe return to us. I beseech you to find a way to turn yourself and your wee one into the police as soon as possible, so you and he or she can be protected. Only then can a process of healing and recovery begin, however long it may take, however difficult it may be. I would like you to understand that the family will do all that is needed for your well-being and I also wish you to understand you are much, much loved whatever the circumstances. We are deeply concerned for your and your baby's welfare. The past eight years have been beyond painful for all the family, as well as

your friends, as they must have been for you. And to see you so vulnerable again is testing in the extreme. I would like to extend my gratitude to the police for all their endeavours in bringing this tragic episode to a swift and safe conclusion and appeal to you, please, Constance, find the courage to present yourself to the police as soon as possible. Thank you.

A high-risk missing persons inquiry was launched and it was front page news overnight. The faces of Constance Martin and Mark Gordon were absolutely everywhere. The police appealed for anyone to come forward who may have seen anything. The race was on to track down their days old baby and make sure that it was alive and safe. Investigators found that the car had been bought for cash just a few days before and the explosion was actually

believed to be due to a mechanical failure which is absolutely terrifying. Authorities also learn that by that time Constance was receiving an allowance of around £2,500 a month from her trust fund. On top of that she had been emailing her family trust for more money in the months leading up to going away. And they had all been granted to the total of £47,800. So her family hadn't cut her off. Despite her saying, you know, it's all these malicious attempts to sort of flush her out and get... They don't. I feel like, especially when you hear Napier Martin make that appeal, you can see that he's just desperate for his daughter to come home.

They also, by this point, know Mark Gordon's history. Can you imagine how you would feel as a parent? No. So police combed through more than 200 hours of CCTV footage. Between that investigation and the cascade of new sightings that were pouring in every day. And unlike with other cases, it wasn't like sightings that were not backed up. They were fucking all over the country as we're about to find out. And detectives used all this to build a timeline of the couple's whereabouts.

And it was, in a word, erratic. It traced them back to late 2022, before the baby had been born, where they spent three months living in various Airbnbs. On the 20th of December, the couple checked into a cottage in Northumberland, which is pretty much as far north as you can get before you're in Scotland. And Constance was super pregnant at this stage. Ready to pop. They left that cottage six days after arriving on Boxing Day,

and they left it in what the owner called a disgusting state, with food and rubbish strewn everywhere and urine stains on the carpet. I just piss everywhere. Why? And this is the thing with this case. Like, not everything has come out yet. So we don't, like, have all of the information about, like, mental health and what's going on. But, like, again, just to reiterate, this isn't just, again, a woman or a couple who are victims of an aggressive state campaign to take her children away from them because she's on the social services radar.

If there's piss all over your carpet and it's yours there's something not okay and yes that baby should maybe have some other eyes on it i just wonder what they were doing i don't know i don't know apparently though constance did manage to wash the bed sheets in this airbnb but you have to sort of wonder why she bothered. On the 28th of December, after their stinky Christmas party, Constance's car broke down. Not the exploding one, different car. A recovery driver said that he could tell that the couple were living in the vehicle. He didn't report seeing anything of a baby, and he gave them a lift to Bolton. And from there, their zigzagging taxi adventure really started in earnest. They paid a lot of these cab drivers up front and in cash,

partly because they were taking massively long journeys, and partly because they looked pretty rough. They had padded their coats with the stuffing of old sofas and kept their faces covered the whole time to avoid detection. Yeah, I'm not, you're not getting in my car. Yeah. They checked into hotels in Cheshire and Manchester. Police went to all of these hotels and Airbnbs looking for clues as to their whereabouts. It was around that time that Constance bought her dodgy Peugeot and parked it on the side of the motorway and gave birth in it. And narrowly escaped being blown to smithereens.

I mean, it is just so harrowing. It's just a really, really tragic story all round. But yeah, that car just exploded after she gave birth in it. Yeah, that's terrifying. The two of them were picked up from the wreckage by a passing motorist and dropped off at a supermarket back in Bolton. And then they got a taxi to Liverpool. Then they took another taxi to Essex. Now, that might not mean a lot to some of you, but if you know anything about UK geography and taxis, your jaw is probably on

the floor. They travelled 270 miles away from Bolton, from the north-west to the south-east coast, and that wasn't even their longest ride. And we will put a map of their whole journey on socials for you. It really does cover the entire length of the country from north to south, and it's not even a direct line. In Essex, they were seen on CCTV carrying the baby under a red shawl. I remember that. Yeah. And there were several sightings of them in Colchester, which is about 20 miles away. And then they got a 70-mile taxi to East Ham in East London.

And being in London, the CCTV coverage picks up even more. Because footage shows Constance waddling around in her giant sofa coat with the baby's head poking out of the top. They were seen buying a pram, a tent, pillows and sleeping bags in Argos. They got a taxi to Whitechapel and ate at a curry house on Brick Lane. They're all bad. Yeah, but you've got to see the sights when you're doing your bizarre sofa coat baby hiding journey across the UK. The couple are also caught on CCTV in a kebab house. And in this footage, the baby is in a pram while they tuck into a couple of doner kebabs, Mark reaches over to pull a blanket over

it. On the 7th of January, the couple were asked by a bystander if they were the missing couple all over the news. They of course denied that they were, but they must have been spooked because shortly after that, they took another mammoth taxi ride all the way to the south coast. It took them from Hornsey in North London to New Haven, East Sussex. The taxi arrived at their destination at 5am and the journey cost them £475. That's not bad. It's far.

Probably as much as a National Rail train ticket would cost you these days. Also, like, they're getting spotted so much all over the country because as a couple and like despite not just because of what they're wearing they stand out. Oh yeah. A lot. So Constance Martin obviously pictures of her from the Tatler photo shoot and everything else she did when she was younger

plastered all over the internet so everyone's seen her face. And then Mark Gordon is like this much older weird as fuck looking black guy who's just with her. And they're wearing sofa coats everywhere they go. Like, of course they stood out. So anyway, from East Sussex, they went over to the South Downs, which is a national park sort of between Brighton and Portsmouth on the South Coast. Absolutely beautiful. If you've got time, definitely

go check it out. And they stayed there, living on the South Downs for an entire month. Again, we'll come back to this, but remember that this is still mid-January. It was freezing cold, incredibly windy and very wet. They were living in a tent out on the moors for a month. And once again, it bears repeating, this was all very much by choice because remember, Constance Martin has access to her trust fund. She has literally tens of thousands of pounds in her hands. But the thing is,

she's making the choice to sleep in tents because she's so convinced that if she goes into a hotel or an Airbnb, the authorities will find her and they will take her baby away. And yes, that is probably all what happened, but not because of some sinister plot, but because she's not okay. On the 16th of January, a dog walker in the Stanmer Park Nature Reserve

saw Mark Gordon coming out of a tent with a bag for life. The next week, the tent had been moved. The couple were spotted on a path near the Seven Sisters Cliffs, and then again in Stanmore Park. Constance was seen outside a blue tent, and she appeared to be carrying a very young baby. The witness said that the baby's head was wobbly, it had no socks on, no blanket, no hat and it was very pale. They were seen a few more times around the outskirts of Brighton but the baby was nowhere to be seen. On the 20th they were seen on CCTV trying to break into Hollingbury Golf Course, looking through the bins, presumably for food. And they were carrying a red little bag. Then finally, on the 27th of February, a member of the public called 999 after spotting the pair in Brighton. And they were found and arrested in Hollingbury

Place. Constance told the police that her name was Arabella. In the body cam footage of the arrest, you can see the police ask the pair over and over again, where is the baby? Stop, I need to speak to me. Put the stick down. Drop it. Now. Why? Put the stick down and I'll explain. Why?

Put the stick... Let go of the stick. The stick in your hand. Why? Let go of the stick. Right, at this moment in time, until I can confirm who you are, you're both under arrest on suspicion of child neglect. So you don't have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you don't mention when

questioned something which is not in court, anything that they are given in. Do you ever understand? Let me eat, let me eat. I'll let you... Put the stuff down, we're going to put you in cuffs, and then we will talk about your eating. Let me have my food. Look at me. Constance.

Constance, Arabella, whoever you are. Alright, where's your child? I'll level with you. Why are we under arrest here? You're under arrest for child neglect. Where is your child? You are under arrest for consuming the birth of a child. That's not arrest, is it?

All right. And Section 27, Offence Against the Person Act, exposes a child under the age of two years, whereas by life or health, to be endangered. Do you understand what you've been arrested for? I've been arrested for not arresting but hiding a pregnancy. Right, well that's... I've been arrested for... Okay, they are the offences that I've arrested you on suspicion of. The necessity for your arrest is to protect from

molestation and prevent disappearance. Do you understand that you've been arrested? Section 27 offence against the person acts expose a child under the age of two years whereas life or health is to be endangered. Do you understand? Do you understand what I've said to you? Do you understand what I've said to you? You've been further arrested for three more offences. Mark Gordon and Constance Martin smelled awful and their clothes were packed with paper and furniture stuffing. They refused to answer any questions about the whereabouts or welfare of the baby. Constance called out for Daddy Bear and said, I love you, baby, to Mark Gordon. And as for Daddy Bear himself,

the only time Gordon spoke was to ask for snacks. PC Matthew Colburn, trying to get an answer out of him, initially played ball, offering them ginger beer chicken and crisps from Gordon's shopping bag. But still, all Mark Gordon would say was, Colburn says, quote, we're not going to make you a sandwich. We need to work out where the child is. To which Gordon says, what's the big deal? And carries on eating crisps off the ground.

So the manhunt for Constance Martin and Mark Gordon had finally come to a close. But the fate of the baby was still a mystery. Until, days later on the 1st of March, police were led by a CCTV trail to the Lower Roval allotments just off the golf course. Officers noticed a broken window on one of the sheds and lifted the door to get in.

They knew immediately from the smell that their search was over. Inside the broken shed was a tent, bags containing soured milk and stale bread, and under a table, a red little bag. It was heavy. Inside were two nappies, a blanket, old drinks cans, bits of cardboard, leaves, soil, and finally, what looked like the head of a doll. PC Allen Ralph said, my hand slipped on something.

I looked, and it was the baby's leg. My hand was soaking wet. He went on to say that the baby was very pale and freezing cold to the touch, so had probably been there for some time. I remember when they found the baby in the shed and after they caught Mark Gordon and Constance Martin and they didn't have the baby, you did think it's probably not going to be a happy outcome. Yeah.

If they'd left the baby with somebody else, surely that person by now would have come forward and said because they know there's a massive manhunt for this baby but i really expected that the baby had just died and they had like at least buried it somewhere but the baby's just left in a bag full of rubbish in a bag full of rubbish in a shed. Yeah. So after this discovery, back at the station, Mark Gordon complained of pain in his legs and continually asked for pills. He eventually had to be pushed around in a wheelchair

and he'd just constantly say to everybody, I don't think I should be talked to like I'm a nobody. I've not committed any crimes, therefore I should have respect. I'm in custody, but that doesn't mean I'm a dog. I feel like I'm scum. I feel like I'm a piece of shit. That's how I've been treated. Maybe you feel that way, Mark Gordon, because you are. Now, Constance was initially no commenting all the way through every conversation but eventually she spoke and gave a long interview telling her side of the story

Constance said that they named the baby Victoria and she'd been born on Christmas Eve which doesn't really match up with the signs of childbirth in the 206 that exploded unless Constance gavebirth in the 206 that exploded, unless Constance gave birth in the car while they were still staying at the cottage. It just doesn't really make sense. Yeah, because they didn't leave that Airbnb that they covered in piss until Boxing Day. Initially, Constance said that little Victoria died three days after the car fire,

but she's changed that date at least twice since. She said that she'd done everything she could to keep the baby warm, safe and healthy, but that Victoria died in her sleep. Constance claimed that her baby had died from SIDS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. You also get here it called cot death. And it's defined as the sudden, unexpected and unexplained death

of an apparently healthy baby. It is surprisingly common and it's basically a catch-all for all the various dangers to a baby's life in its first three months. Constance said that she'd only kept carrying the baby's body so she could get it an autopsy eventually and that she was weighing up whether to cremate or bury her child. She said that she bought a shovel and was thinking about burying her in the forest, but she was too weak and worried about animals getting to the body. So instead, Constance Martin carried Victoria's body for weeks. And remember, this is her version of events. Mark Gordon's interviews, however, continue to be pretty hard going.

He spent quite a lot of these on the floor, complaining about the made-up pain in his legs. He refused to say anything to the police, because he said it would just be twisted and used against him in court. He said he wanted to give his testimony straight to the jury and seemed confident that people would hear his side of the story and sympathise. What he did say was that he loved Constance, that she was a wonderful mother

and that she was suffering from post-traumatic stress. What both Constance and Mark said in their interviews was that the explosion changed everything. Constance said that the period before the car exploded was another happy time for them. Just the three of them, all together. They said that they had everything they needed in the car to give Victoria her best shot. Clothes, nappies, blankets, as well as loads of cash. But when the car blew up, all of that was destroyed.

And not just that. They also knew that the police wouldn't be far behind them. And they were also very aware of the media attention that they were getting. They claimed that they were forced to go on the run or Victoria would be taken away like the others. So finally, it came time for the trial. The couple were charged with manslaughter by gross negligence,

perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty, and causing and allowing the death of a child. The couple denied all charges. The trial began at the Old Bailey on the 25th of January, 2024. It was due to finish by March the 8th, but it definitely did not. It went on and on and on. On only the third day, the Old Bailey's electricity substation exploded. Everyone was evacuated and the trial had to be delayed until the following week.

And then, over the following months, there were endless other legal and administrative delays. Still, let's do a quick roll call before we get going with it. The trial was presided over by Judge Mark Leucroft-Casey, the Recorder of London at the Old Bailey, and the senior criminal judge in the country. The prosecutor, Tom Little Casey, is the first senior Treasury counsel. That means he's the senior prosecuting barrister in the UK. And both of the defence lawyers were at the top of the game too.

The case was in strong hands. Constance's mum and her brother Tobias were there in the well of court, watching. But Constance didn't once look at her mum. Court reporters say that Tobias Martin stayed absolutely stoic and emotionless throughout, apart from once, when the trip to a kebab shop was mentioned, at which he put his head in his hands. None of Mark's family turned up, not officially anyway. Constance and Mark were obviously in it together. Their stories had matched up so far, and they spent a lot of the trial chatting to and comforting each other. So firstly, let's lay out the basics of the arguments for the prosecution and the defence.

Because they disagree a little on the timeline, and it is important. So the defence's case was that Victoria had died on the 8th or 9th of January, in her first few weeks of life, and on her second night in the tent and just a few days after the car fire on the 5th of January. The defence said that the couple were being responsible, they had bought everything that they needed to look after baby Victoria, but that it had all tragically, through no fault of their own, been destroyed in the car fire. But this claim goes against witness testimonies

that say that the pair were spotted with the baby much later than even the 9th of January. So the prosecution said that Victoria had died much later, probably more like February, and that she had likely died of hypothermia. That would mean that Constance and Mark had knowingly kept that baby exposed to freezing temperatures for much longer. It would also mean that they were more likely to have carried her around alive

in that plastic bag. And now they were lying about it. Prosecutor Tom Little started strong out of the gate. He called it the entirely avoidable death of a young baby girl who would still be alive if it was not for the reckless, utterly selfish, callous, cruel, arrogant and ultimately grossly negligent conduct of these two defendants. They put their relationship and their view of life before the life of a little baby girl. He went on in that vein, saying the couple decided that they knew best and selfishly acted against the baby's best interests. That informed everything, from staying on the run after giving birth, to avoiding any medical assistance whatsoever, to camping out on the freezing South Downs. Little pointed out that even after the baby died,

they didn't hand themselves in, instead choosing to stay off grid and leaving Victoria's remains in a bag in a shed. That baby never stood a chance. Representing Constance was Defence Barrister Francis Fitzgibbon. He said that Constance was a victim of nasty class prejudice because of her upbringing. What? I mean, he's not got loads to work with, so I can understand the point.

But, I mean, I think Tom Little sums it up pretty well, to be honest. But that's not Fitzgibbon's job. He also talked about the effect that the media coverage would have had on Constance, and the trial itself did have a huge media presence. So he argued that it would be quite difficult, if not impossible, for the jury not to have been influenced by the media storm. At one point, when a witness mentioned the little bag for life, Fitzgibbon pointed out that the name of the supermarket hadn't been mentioned yet at trial.

So, that witness must have seen the media reports and been influenced by them. The witness just said that he shops at Lidl, so that's why he said it, which, to be fair, I do not believe. No. Then it was Constance's turn to speak for herself. And it was certainly interesting. Firstly because the legal wrangling between her, the barristers, and the judge took forever. Constance kept shouting over them and using any question as a chance to monologue at length about whatever popped into her head. She went back on a load of stuff that had already been put in the agreed statements and brought up endless irrelevant and or completely inadmissible facts.

Amongst some of the things was she would basically stand up there and say that two of her kids had been abused in care and that she wanted to do anything she could to keep another one of her children ending up in the system. Then when the jury was finally allowed to enter, Constance took the stand to give evidence to defend herself In a child abuse case I just have to say, it's a testament I think To how little maybe Fitzgibbon has to work with Because how often, Hannah, do we ever see the defendant Taking the stand to speak for themselves This is bonkers that Constance did this

And that her barrister let her do this. Especially someone who is clearly not okay. I don't know, maybe it's a ploy by Fitzgibbon to be like, look how nuts she is. Yeah, maybe. She called Victoria's death a horrible accident, but said that it could have happened to anyone. And she said that she was an excellent mother and that babies don't require that much to survive. Yes, they do. When the prosecution asked Constance about what dignity there is

of leaving your baby's remains in a plastic bag covered in beer cans and soil, she fired back. Firstly, she said that they hadn't just dumped her somewhere. Constance claimed that they had left the shed to buy some food and they were going to come back. They were keeping the body because Constance wanted and still wants to bury her daughter one day. And then she added, that is not Victoria. Adding that the body left in the bag was like a space suit and her spirit is what's important.

And to explain the soil and rubbish that was in the bag, Constance said that there had been going everywhere with the bag and it had started to get looks on the bus because it smelled so bad. So she just piled things on top of her baby to avoid suspicion. And look, yes, people can have feelings like, when I'm dead, just shut me. In the fucking woods, I don't care. But I find it so hard to believe that a mother could feel that way about her child and be a-okay. Soance goes on and with regards to the whole living in a tent situation she said people have lived outside for millennia i don't have a problem living outside with my children as long as they are warm and fed at one point she said

jesus was kept in a barn and turned out all right. No, he wasn't. And, you know, Bethlehem is not the South Downs in winter. No. And again, it just comes back to that luxury belief. I'm sure all the people that do have to live outside or live in barns or live in fucking tents or give birth in the middle of nowhere with no medical assistance. They'd fucking love it if they had some of that. And look, I don't think Constance is okay.

I don't think she is. No, absolutely not. She's reasoning well. I get it. It's kind of redundant to argue with these points. But she is making these points in a court of law where a baby is dead. And it comes back again to the idea that she just says everybody is judging her lifestyle. And it really highlights, whatever we may think, the main decision that the jury here had to make.

This is what you need to keep in your mind. Basically, the question is, was it criminal negligence or was it just incompetence? Because the consequences for the difference here are obviously stark. To prove that Constance Martin and Mark Gordon were criminally negligent, the prosecution had to prove that they were aware of the risks that they were exposing their baby to, but decided to take those risks anyway. Constance Martin maintained throughout the trial

that she kept her baby as warm and as safe as she could, so she is aware that not keeping her baby as warm and as safe as she could so she is aware that not keeping a baby warm is a risk yeah i don't know it's a really tricky one i think it comes down to the idea right of like would a reasonable person have known that these situations these circumstances exposing a baby to this lifestyle could reasonably lead to harm or death and i think the answer is yes is Is Constance Martin a reasonable person? I don't know. It's never really talked about.

Now, Constance Martin maintained throughout the trial that she kept the baby as warm and as safe as she could. No, you didn't. Yeah. Like, I'm with you on the intent thing. But it comes down to the lesser charge, right? If we're talking manslaughter, we're talking, should a reasonable person have known that that behavior would reasonably result in death?

Yes. Is she reasonable? That's another question. Harvard is the oldest and richest university in America. But when a social media-fueled fight over Harvard and its new president broke out last fall, that was no protection. Claudian Gay is now gone. We've exposed the DEI regime, and there's much more to come. This is The Harvard Plan, a special series from the Boston Globe and WNYC's On the Media. To listen, subscribe to On The Media wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jake Warren, and in our first season of Finding, I set out on a very personal quest

to find the woman who saved my mom's life. You can listen to Finding Natasha right now, exclusively on Wondery Plus. In season two, I found myself caught up in a new journey to help someone I've never even met. But a couple of years ago, I came across a social media post by a person named Loti. It read in part, Three years ago today that I attempted to jump off this bridge, but this wasn't my time to go.

A gentleman named Andy saved my life. I still haven't found him. This is a story that I came across purely by chance, but it instantly moved me. And it's taken me to a place where I've had to consider some deeper issues around mental health. This is season two of Finding. And this time, if all goes to plan,

we'll be finding Andy. You can listen to Finding Andy and Finding Natasha exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And God knows why her barrister hasn't dragged her from the stand yet, but he hasn't. She went on to tell the courtroom about her long-term plan. After she got pregnant for the fifth time, she was worried social services would take that baby away too, so she decided that she had to get out of Dodge.

She actually wanted all of them to get out of the country straight away, but unfortunately, there were preventatives from going abroad. That's not really what that word means, but fine. Essentially, Constance believed that because of her legal issues in 2019, she was still under a travel ban. So, she planned to wait until the baby was three months old, then pay someone to smuggle their baby abroad. According to Constance, it would have been a carer, a nanny or something. If there is a will, there's a way. You can always find someone to help. So Constance planned to get to know a stranger, hand over her three month old baby, get them to register Victoria abroad in their own name and then she said that

there were plenty of people on Gumtree who would do it. Whether Constance then planned to go and meet Victoria abroad or just surrender her to a life with the mystery gumtree nanny is just not really clear. The other bombshell moment started when Constance said the following. The problem I had was I was going up against not just social services, but my own family members. She then went on to paint her family as an influential Machiavellian unit meddling in her personal life, who used their esteemed connections to manipulate social services to take away her previous children. Why? Because they were embarrassed the children weren't growing up with an upper-class background. And then she told the jury that she'd been hiding out from the start, dressed as an

Irish traveller and sleeping in a tent when she was pregnant with her first baby. She described a time when she had fallen out of a window and her parents had told authorities that Mark was to blame. Constance said there was no proof of domestic violence and it was all lies. Still, the window story and Mark's supposed involvement had been taken into account in the judge's decision to put her first four children into care. Constance said that she was followed by mysterious agents after the birth of her first child in Wales

and believed that her family was doing the same right now. Constance also thought that her family had put a GPS tracker on her car and that is what caused it to explode on the M61. That might sound a bit far-fetched but the prosecuting barrister read a set of agreed facts to the jury. A statement that had been agreed by both parties to be accurate was this. Constance's mum, Virginia Desilier, had admitted in statements to police that she had in fact hired private investigators to look into Constance's whereabouts. She employed a PI for two weeks in October 2016 because she was worried about her daughter. Napier-, Constance's father, admitted separately that he

hired a PI in 2017 and in 2021 to track her down. But both parties deny hiring any investigators between 2022 and 2023 when Constance was pregnant with Victoria and claimed that she was being tracked. I think there's quite a big difference between a PI and blowing up your car with a baby in it. I mean, of course. And look, again, if my daughter went missing with a convicted rapist and was pregnant for the fifth time in five years, and at some point, yes, the police were taking this case incredibly seriously

because the welfare of a child was at stake, but there's only so much the police can do. if i had the resources to hire a private investigator you can bet your fucking ass i would like i don't know again constance martin has an absolute like persecution complex or something it doesn't make sense and i find it bizarre i find it really baffling why more isn't made of her mental health or her mental stability. I think mental health sounds a bit too light. She's like fucking on one and nobody really talks about it. And I find it really bizarre. Constance even said that her family's connections went deep into the highest levels of industry and parliament. Like, it is really screaming tinfoil hat business. And she even said

that if her family had told social services to jump, social services would say how high. Constance told the jury that her family had managed to get a travel ban imposed on her by telling a string of lies. Namely, that Constance was addicted to drugs and that she was only having children

so she could sell them on the black market. Or give them away on Gumtree. Yeah. I don't doubt the influence her family had, but I think, you know, it's very obvious that she's extremely paranoid and not very well. After that, the defence turned their line of questioning to the death of Victoria. Constance, remember, just said that she'd fallen asleep with her daughter in her jacket and woke up with her head on the floor and Victoria had suffocated. The defence called in Professor Peter Fleming, Professor of Infant Health and

Developmental Physiology at the University of Bristol. Fleming said he saw absolutely no evidence of hypothermia as a cause of death and added that the description he had heard of how Victoria was being cared for made hypothermia exceedingly unlikely. But that description obviously came from Constance Martin. Slightly baffling though, Fleming said that he'd studied babies in Mongolia who slept in their mother's clothing when the room temperature was commonly below zero. The judge asked, presumably they were wearing traditional Mongolian clothing

and Professor Fleming replied, correct. Yes, it does genuinely appear that Fleming was trying to suggest that raising a baby in a 50 quid Argos tent in midwinter and then falling asleep with your baby in a 50 quid argos tent in midwinter and then falling asleep with your baby in a coat filled with sofa stuffing is actually a centuries-old cultural technique

which is perfectly fine but it just isn't oh my god you really don't have to be a professor of infant health to see that there is neglect here. And the more I go on, the more I am leaning towards criminal negligence. Yeah. Professor Fleming also gave evidence about Victoria's age at the time of death. He said that having measured Victoria's foot length, he claimed that she had probably not been born prematurely

and was about two or three weeks old when she died, which matches up with Constance's timeline. He said that he had heard her explanation, that she fell asleep sitting up, killed over, and woke up to find Victoria dead. He also confirmed in court that these kind of deaths weren't uncommon. They'd seen plenty of cases in his career. Later, though, the prosecution picked up on this, and quite rightly, because yes, of course it happens. It can be horrible, a tragic accident by an otherwise capable and loving parent. But every parent that is at any contact with any health professional has the dangers of

this drummed into them. And although Constance avoided health professionals like the plague, she's still liable because she was officially warned of the dangers of co-sleeping by social services when they got involved with her first baby. A social worker actually testified that they had told Constance twice that co-sleeping could lead to suffocation, overheating and positional asphyxia. Like we said, this tragically does happen to perfectly competent but exhausted parents. It's far from criminally irresponsible. But it does play into the prosecution's argument that Constance was aware of the dangers of her situation, but she kept doing it anyway. I don't believe that a woman who has a 2-1 in Arabic and Middle Eastern studies from Leeds doesn't know those things.

No. And also, just want to say, again, she's aware of the dangers of the situations. We're not just talking about co-sleeping. The dangers of sleeping in a fucking tent in midwinter. I really don't want all the mums that co-sleep coming for us because this is a very hot button issue in the mummy world. Oh, I bet. And not something I'm interested in getting involved in. I'm like, you do what's right for you.

Hear, read, investigate, research everything. You do what's right for you. Follow your instinct. All of that. But she's sleeping in the tent with a newborn baby in the middle of winter. Yeah. So we've heard a lot about Constance's time in the stand. But there's one person we haven't yet heard a peep from.

Someone who clammed up in his interview because he only wanted to tell his story directly to the jury. So what about Mark Gordon's testimony? Well, he didn't have any. Gordon had a change of heart and decided not to give evidence after all. What possible reason could you have to refuse to even tell your side of the story directly to a jury? Unless, of course, you were worried that your story wouldn't match up to your co-defendants. Or your barrister told you not to. Yes, which would be good advice. So maybe it seems for some of you listening at home, in your car, on your boat,

in your tent, that this is a totally cut and dry situation. But we do have to look at the specifics of the charges. Just like Robert Durst wriggling out of killing his neighbour, spoilers, the jury is not there to give a general character reference for someone. They're not even there to judge whether the defendant has done anything illegal. All they have to decide is, are the people on the stand guilty of the specific charges they are charged with? So let's have a closer look at what we mean. Count one, concealment of the birth of a child. Now, obviously, Mark Gordon and Constance Martin deliberately kept the birth of their fifth baby from authorities. But what's contentious here is whether they tried to dispose of the body in the shed to hide the

birth ever happened. Prosecution says yes, defence says they were coming back for it. I'd say it's definitely possible that they were planning on coming back for baby Victoria's body, but it also feels like splitting hairs. They did everything they could to conceal Victoria's birth and death from authorities, and we know that. Count number two, child cruelty. Did they knowingly neglect the baby or expose it to unsafe conditions? I think I've made it pretty clear that I think that is a resounding yes, they absolutely did do that. I agree. Even if the defence's version of events is true, they had access to thousands of pounds. Even if the baby clothes burnt up in the car in the explosion, Constance just could have bought more. Even if the baby did die from SIDS or co-sleeping,

she just shouldn't be having a newborn baby in a tent. And at the end of the day, even if Constance knew the baby would be taken into care, at least it would have survived. Constance Martin chose to keep Victoria out in the freezing winter with no hat or warm clothes, just so she could hold on to her. And that's not the behaviour of a good mother. Skipping ahead to count five, perverting the course of justice.

Obviously, yes, they were on the run for weeks. And when Victoria died, they stayed on the run. But it's counts three and four that really matter here. Causing or allowing the death of a child and manslaughter by gross negligence. Now these are similar but manslaughter is much more severe. So to what extent did Constance Martin and Mark Gordon let Victoria down in their duty of care as her parents? Again this has nothing to do with mistakes, even serious ones. This is about criminal liability for that baby's death. Again, either way, we think that Constance

Martin is guilty for both, especially since the defense's version of the story just doesn't add up. It counts on all of the witnesses that saw baby Victoria after the 9th of January all being completely wrong or lying or misremembering. And also doesn't explain Mark Gordon's sudden change of heart and refusal to testify. But yes, even if Victoria died after just a few weeks, like they say, this situation was totally self-made. And as for the decision that Constance Martin was unequipped to care for her children, well, we have to side with the courts on that one. Because Constance Martin's conviction, there was nothing wrong with the lifestyle she was living,

was proven tragically wrong by the simple fact that Victoria is dead. Obvious as that may seem, the jury was completely split on these final counts. They deliberated for a total of 72 hours and 33 minutes. Eventually, on Monday the 3rd of June, Judge Mark Leucroft gave the ten-strong jury a majority direction. The jury did not need to be unanimous. He said that he would accept verdicts on which only nine of the jury were agreed. But still, 16 days later, on the 19th of June this year, the jury were unable to reach a unanimous or even a majority verdict. The judge thanked the jury for their exceptional

dedication and discharged them. They were also excused from jury service for the jury for their exceptional dedication and discharged them. They were also excused from jury service for the rest of their lives. So, 15 months after little Victoria's death, the trial was finally over. But, I hear you cry, what about the other charges? Well, ten days later, it was revealed that in fact, the jury had found Martin and Gordon guilty elsewhere. Of the five charges, the jury had at least agreed on two, concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice. These two are definitely the lightest of the five charges. And on all of the important ones,

those to do with child cruelty and blame for Victoria's death, well, the jury is still out. Now it's up to the prosecution to mount a retrial, which is due in March 2025. So Constance Martin and Mark Gordon will be kept in custody until then. And we're all going to have to wait for an update. And yeah, I think it's a tricky case, right? Because on the surface, it seems very obvious that they are responsible for Victoria's death.

The difficulty here for the jury is that grey area when it comes to criminality. Are they criminally liable for baby Victoria's death? And I do think that the jury tried genuinely very hard to get to a conclusion here. And I think they were just unable to. So yeah, we're going to have to wait for the retrial if they go through with it. I don't see how they can't. No, no, gonna go on forever yeah and uh if and when that happens we'll be back with an update on however you feel about it a case we can agree is just incredibly tragic yeah yeah if you as like two people want to go live off the grid and do whatever do you i'm not a big fan of like state intervention in people's lives telling people how to live but it becomes a real gray area when children are involved yeah and it's kind of

this is my flailing attempt to end this on not a complete bummer you know it made when you're just saying that it made me think of all those years ago when we did that episode on genetic sexual attraction and we're talking about those people who are you know parent and child or siblings and then there's nothing they can do about it and they live these secret lives and we were sort of discussing the ethical ramifications of that and i think it's a similar one of like it's all fun and games until you've got a kid with webbed feet this is the thing they do think that the state and society as a whole has a responsibility owed to children for their safety. Actually, it does

remind me, when you brought up genetic sexual attraction, I've got an interesting story on which I watched a documentary about a woman called Emmeline that I will tell you on Under the Duvet next week. Okay. It's fucking weird. Anyway, that is it, guys. That's where we are calling this story.

We'll be back if and when there is an update. And that is that. Bye. Bye. you