LONDON (AP) — A British aristocrat who went on the run with her boyfriend and their newborn daughter in 2023 were convicted Monday of killing the infant.
Constance Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, were found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter during their second trial at London's Central Criminal Court. They were previously convicted of perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child and child cruelty during their first trial.
Marten had secretly given birth to a girl named Victoria after the couple's other four children were taken by courts that found there was a risk of harm to them.
Despite having wealthy parents with connections to the royal family and her own trust fund, Marten rejected her privilege. She lived at times without paying rent and while on the lam scavenged food from trash bins and camped in freezing conditions.
Police launched a massive nationwide search that lasted seven weeks after a placenta was found Jan. 5, 2023, in the couple's burned-out and abandoned car in northwestern England.
The couple spent hundreds of pounds on cabs to shuttle around the country as they avoided using credit cards or anything that might identify them.
After their arrest in Brighton on Feb. 27, the couple refused to say where the baby was. Gordon, who served more than 20 years in a U.S. prison for rape, said “What’s the big deal?” when asked about the baby's welfare.
Two days later, police found the baby’s decomposed body in a shopping bag under rubbish in a garden shed. The infant either died from hypothermia or was suffocated, prosecutors said.
The couple said it was tragic accident that occurred when Marten was sleeping.
Both defendants testified during the second trial, but cut their testimony short during cross-examination. Marten called the prosecution “heartless” and “diabolical.”
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