Care failings behind runaway heiress Constance Marten’s baby tragedy laid bare – with thousands more children at risk
The systematic lack of support given to parents whose children were removed from their care led fugitive heiress Constance Marten to conceal her pregnancy; Experts have warned that thousands more children are at risk.
A major report into the death of baby Victoria Marten, who died in a tent on the South Downs in Sussex after her parents kidnapped her to prevent her being taken into care, has called for an end to the “devastating cycle” of parents hiding new pregnancies after losing other children to the system.
Marten, who was born into a wealthy aristocratic family, and his partner, convicted rapist Mark Gordon, who spent 20 years in a Florida prison, will be sentenced to 14 years in prison for Victoria’s manslaughter by gross negligence.
The baby’s lifeless body was found in a carrier bag full of trash after his parents were caught on the run for weeks.
Now, a national child protection review has called for urgent action to help prevent further tragedies, warning that 5,360 children under the age of one in England, including 1,430 unborn babies, are subject to child protection plans (CPP).
The review found:
- “Systemic gaps” in post-release support left Marten and Gordon “isolated and unsupported” after their first four children were taken into care
- Sex offenders like Gordon should be subject to stricter reporting requirements, including notifying police if they or their partners become pregnant.
- Marten claims she was “given an ultimatum rather than real help” by social services in the years leading up to her baby’s death
- Despite evidence of domestic violence, including that Marten suffered life-threatening injuries while pregnant, professionals were “confused” by her “separate and co-dependent” relationship with a sex offender
The couple’s fifth child, Victoria, was delivered secretly in December 2022 after the couple ran away to avoid being taken into care like their four older children.
After frantically wandering the country during a massive police search, they settled in a flimsy tent off the grid in Sussex, where a defenseless newborn died in bitterly cold conditions.
Marten, 38, and Gordon, 51, claimed the baby died in a tragic accident after falling asleep in a tent. But the pair were found guilty of manslaughter, child cruelty, concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice after jurors heard they hid Victoria’s decomposing body in a carrier bag they left in a disused shed.
Jailing them last year, judge Mark Lucraft KC, said the parents were guilty of the “grossest and most serious” neglect, adding: “Neither of you gave much thought to the care or welfare of your baby: your focus was on yourself.”
A review published on Thursday by the National Child Safe Practices Review Panel said Victoria’s arrival was part of a “repeated pattern with devastating consequences”.
Marten’s first two children were taken into care in January 2020, and her next two children were removed at birth.
The report found that each pregnancy involved further concealment and abandonment of child protection services, culminating in Victoria’s secret birth and death.
Panel chair Sir David Holmes said the “critical lesson” from the tragedy was that: “Keeping children safe by justifiably removing them from their parents only serves to protect those children.”
He added: “It doesn’t get to the root of the problem and it doesn’t prevent the same situations from happening again. In fact, it could increase the risk of harm to the next child who is not yet born, not even pregnant yet.”
The report called for a greater focus on supporting parents to process the “loss and pain” of children’s repeated removals, noting that no help is currently available.
“Parents’ coping strategies will vary from person to person, but the repeated removal of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon’s children may have strengthened their perception of the harm caused by the children’s social care and may have made Victoria’s concealment feel subjectively ‘rational’,” the report said.
Sir David added: “The important lesson from baby Victoria’s story is clear: to better protect vulnerable babies, we must also support their parents.
“This may be difficult to hear and understand, but it is essential if we want to stop cycles of harm from repeating.”
Marten told the review that “nothing was done” to support her after losing her children and suggested parents should be provided with a confidential service separate from the local authority.
Asked how well child protection agencies understand the impact of removing a child, he added: “The local authority does not fully see its role once the child has been removed. In fact, people can be supported and changed, which will result in children being returned and supported.”
He described seeing a child at the contact center as “one of the most painful experiences a parent can endure” but said no support was provided after the visits.
The review also found two missed opportunities where authorities should have intervened further. This included Gordon’s arrest for assaulting two police officers at a hospital in 2017 and a serious incident in 2019 when Marten fell out of a window while pregnant with her third child.
He was treated in the hospital for eight days due to a ruptured spleen and a ruptured kidney. A family court concluded the fall was an incident of domestic violence, which he repeatedly denied.
The report found that “Constance Marten’s confident presentation, denial of abuse, and reluctance to engage in services all masked her own vulnerability.”
The panel said although Victoria’s death was not foreseeable, problems such as secret pregnancies, repeated child removals, domestic abuse, poor interaction with services, serious crimes and frequent movements between different areas were common in serious safeguarding cases.
In a series of recommendations, the review called for better interaction and support with parents before and after the child is removed to help break cycles of harm and reduce the risk of recurrence.
