UNITED KINGDOM: Charged with the manslaughter of a baby named Victoria, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been remanded in custody. Marten, 35, and Gordon, 48, were charged with hiding a child’s birth, perverting the course of justice, and gross negligence manslaughter when they appeared in Crawley magistrates court on Friday.
Following the discovery of baby Victoria’s remains on Wednesday afternoon, the pair were detained in Brighton on Monday and charged on Thursday. Detectives claimed on Wednesday that it was impossible to determine whether the baby was a boy or a girl because they believed it had been dead for several weeks.
Baby Victoria’s remains were discovered in a plastic bag underneath some diapers in an allotment shed, the court heard on Friday. On Friday, a postmortem investigation was anticipated.
During a brief hearing in a crowded courtroom, Marten and Gordon only spoke to affirm their names, dates of birth, and that they had no fixed address. Gordon sat through the meeting with a grey jumper covering his head.
On March 31, they are expected to show up at the Old Bailey. “You are both here today… on charges of manslaughter, concealment of the birth of a child, and perverting the course of justice,” said Carol Lintott, chair of the bench of judges.
According to a statement from the Metropolitan Police, the Independent Office for Police Conduct will “assess the referral to figure out if we need to do anything else.”
Marten and Gordon hadn’t been seen since January 5, when their burned-out car was found next to an interstate in Bolton. It led to a 53-day search for the couple, during which hundreds of police officers used dogs, thermal cameras, helicopters, and drones to try to find baby Victoria.
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