Systemic gaps in support for parents whose children are removed from their care helped drive runaway heiress Constance Marten to hide her pregnancy – with thousands more children at risk, experts have warned.
A major report into the death of baby Victoria Marten, who died in a tent on the South Downs in Sussex after her parents took her on the run in a bid to avoid her being taken into care, called for an end to the “destructive cycle” of parents concealing new pregnancies after losing other children to the system.
Marten, born to a wealthy aristocratic family, and her partner Mark Gordon, a convicted rapist who served 20 years in a Florida jail, are each serving 14 years for the gross negligence manslaughter of Victoria.
The infant’s lifeless body was found stashed in a rubbish-filled carrier bag after her parents were captured following weeks on the run.
Now, a national child safeguarding review has called for urgent action to help prevent further tragedies, warning 5,360 children aged under one are subject to child protection plans (CPPs) in England, including 1,430 unborn babies.
The review found:
- “Systemic gaps” in post-removal 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 tougher notification requirements, including telling police if they or their partner becomes pregnant
- Marten claims she was “given ultimatums, rather than true assistance” by social services in the years leading up to her baby’s death
- Despite evidence of domestic abuse – including Marten sustaining life-threatening injuries while pregnant – professionals were “confounded” by her “insular and co-dependent” relationship with a sex offender
Victoria – the couple’s fifth child – was delivered in secret in December 2022, after the pair went on the run to stop her from being taken into care like their four older children.
They frantically travelled the country during a major police search, before settling off-grid in Sussex in a flimsy tent, where the vulnerable newborn died in bitterly cold conditions.
Marten, 38, and Gordon, 51, claimed the infant died in a tragic accident after she fell asleep on her in the tent. But the pair were convicted 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, which they left in a disused allotment shed.
Jailing them last year, judge Mark Lucraft KC said the parents were guilty of the “gravest and most serious” neglect, adding: “Neither of you gave much if any thought to the care or welfare of your baby: your focus was on yourselves.”
A review, published on Thursday by the national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, said Victoria’s arrival was part of “a repeating pattern with devastating consequences”.
Marten’s first two children were taken into care in January 2020 and her subsequent two children were removed at birth.
Each pregnancy involved greater concealment and disengagement with child protection services, culminating in Victoria’s secret birth and death, the report found.
Panel chair Sir David Holmes said a “critical lesson” to learn from the tragedy was that “keeping children safe by removing them with just cause from their parents only serves to protect those children”.
He added: “It does not address the root of the problem, and it does not prevent the same set of circumstances from happening again. Indeed, it may increase the risk of harm for the next child, not yet born, not yet even conceived.”
The report called for a greater focus on supporting parents to process the “loss and grief” of successive child removals, noting there is currently no help available.
“Parental coping strategies will vary from individual to individual, but the successive removal of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon’s children may have reinforced their perception of harm caused by children’s social care, making the concealment of Victoria feel subjectively ‘rational’,” the report said.
Sir David added: “A key lesson from baby Victoria’s story is clear: to protect vulnerable babies better, we must support their parents too.
“That may be hard to hear and hard to understand, but it is essential if we are to stop cycles of harm from repeating.”
Marten told the review that “nothing was done” to support her after losing her children and suggested a confidential service – separate from the local authority – should be available to parents.
Asked how well child safeguarding agencies understand the impact of having a child removed, she added: “Not at all, the local authority see their role as complete once removal is achieved. In fact people can be supported and can change which should result in children being returned and supported.”
She described seeing a child at a contact centre “one of the most painful experiences for a parent to endure”, but said there was no support available after visits.
The review also identified two missed opportunities when authorities should have intervened further. This included Gordon’s arrest for assaulting two police officers in a hospital in 2017 and a serious incident in 2019, which saw Marten fall from a window while pregnant with her third child.
She spent eight days in hospital being treated for a shattered spleen and lacerations to a kidney. A family court concluded the fall was an incident of domestic abuse, but she has repeatedly denied this.
“Constance Marten’s confident presentation, denial of abuse and reluctance to engage with services, all masked her own vulnerability,” the report found.
The panel said that, although Victoria’s death was not predictable, issues such as concealed pregnancies, repeated child removals, domestic abuse, poor engagement with services, serious offending, and frequent moves between different areas are common in serious safeguarding cases.
In a series of recommendations, the review called for better engagement with and support for parents before and after child removal, to help break cycles of harm and reduce repeat risk.
