Over two years, barristers tiptoed around an elephant in the courtroom - the shocking rape of a woman in the United States by Constance Marten's partner when he was a child. Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, were never accused of deliberately harming their baby Victoria, meaning the fact that he had spent 22 years in prison for a violent sexual crime when he was 14 was initially deemed inadmissible in their manslaughter trial.
The court had heard how their alternative lifestyles, sleeping in a tent, and refusal to accept help or parenting advice, had raised red flags for social services before their four other children were taken into care. Similarly, it was their aversion to authority that indirectly led to the death of their fifth child Victoria - and put them on a collision course in the courtroom.
Judge's unprecedented frustration
At one point during their six-month retrial, a clearly exasperated Judge Mark Lucraft KC told Marten: "I have sat as a full time judge now for thirteen years and I have never had that sort of attitude shown to me by anybody." Judge Lucraft, who sits as the Recorder of London, added that two teenagers who had been in his dock earlier that day were "rather better behaved - and they pleaded guilty to murder".
The scene was set before the case began, as Gordon's defence team raised the thorny subject of the "white aristocrat and black rapist". The lawyers repeatedly tried, and failed, to get the case thrown out because of prejudicial pre-publicity mentioning Gordon's background.
Strict court measures imposed
Strict measures were put in place to prevent re-publication of Gordon's convictions, with stern words from Judge Lucraft when they slipped into a press report during the first trial in 2024. The first case eventually concluded with the defendants being convicted of perverting the course of justice, failing to report the birth of a child, and child cruelty.
The jury, which asked more than 150 questions, was duly discharged and a retrial ordered, after they failed to agree on homicide charges. The retrial got under way in February, under similarly strict conditions not to mention Gordon's violent past either inside or outside court.
Defendants reveal shocking past
In the event, it was the defendants themselves who let the cat out of the bag, to the palpable shock of jurors. Giving evidence, Marten blurted out Gordon's conviction in the US when explaining why they did not alert authorities when baby Victoria died in a tent on the South Downs.
She told jurors: "Mark has a violent rape conviction and spent 22 years in prison, so my fear was that they'd immediately scapegoat him, which is what they usually do." Marten then stalked out of the witness box, accusing prosecutor Joel Smith KC of being "diabolical" and a "heartless human being".
Gordon's evidence backfires spectacularly
Unlike in the first trial, Gordon opted to give evidence for the first time, unaided by a barrister. He began by telling jurors that his mother was a hard-working nurse who was passionate and empathetic and had instilled those values in him.
He said: "Everybody faces challenges in life. The idea I was underprivileged was not the case." Such was the rosy image he presented of his childhood, prosecutors immediately moved to correct the record and unleash his violent past.
Violent past finally exposed
Gordon hit the roof when Judge Lucraft allowed his rape conviction in the US, and two more recent assaults on female police officers, to be disclosed to the jury. The defendant promptly walked out of the witness box and demanded proof of his historical convictions.
The prosecution moved swiftly to secure extensive archive papers from the Florida court on Gordon's rape and assault convictions in the US. They also invited two officers to travel from Wales to the Old Bailey to give evidence about being attacked by Gordon at a maternity unit where Marten had given birth to their first child in 2017.
Defendant's rage exposed to jury
Gordon's strategic blunders caused him to boil over in full view of jurors. They were treated to the spectacle of his face contorting with rage and veins bulging, the very picture of a violent offender he had been at pains to conceal.
In the aftermath of the dramatic court scene, he appeared down but not out as he stumbled over his words in a rambling closing speech, having divested himself of five barristers over two trials. Marten had instructed no less than 14 barristers, and was reduced from a team of two to just one by the end of the retrial.
Delays and disruption plague trial
The case was also beset by delays, with the defendants repeatedly failing to turn up at court and causing disruption by their behaviour in the dock when they were present. During the first trial, prosecutor Tom Little KC even suggested at one point that Marten wanted to "filibuster this case out".
If the atmosphere in court was, at times, fractious, the presence of pro-Marten protesters outside did nothing to calm the mood, and Judge Lucraft said that questioning people going into the building "crossed the line". Finally, the delays, dock dramas and distractions fell away after Marten and Gordon were convicted of their daughter's manslaughter.
(PA) Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
