Did the manhunt for Constance Marten and Mark Gordon make baby Victoria's death a 'terrible inevitability'? Reporter David James Smith argues more could have been done to protect newborn in wake of new review

Published: 00:09, 21 July 2026 | Updated: 00:18, 21 July 2026 In an exclusive episode of the Daily Mail's Trial podcast, veteran crime reporter Caroline Cheetham and case expert David James Smith debate the findings of a new review into the killing of baby Victoria by her parents, Constance Marten and Mark Gordon. Following a trial and retrial at the Old Bailey, Gordon and Marten each received fourteen years in prison for the gross negligence manslaughter of their newborn in September 2025. Gordon, who had already served 22 years in prison in America for a rape he committed when he was just 14 years old, was given an additional four years due to the risk he posed to the public. Victoria, just days old when she died, was discovered on March 1, 2023, her body concealed in a shopping bag in a disused allotment shed near Brighton. She was the couple's fifth child, with four others removed from them by the family courts. Gordon and Marten, who lived a nomadic lifestyle, went on the run after the birth of Victoria, later telling the court they feared she too would be taken into care. Their decision to flee sparked a nationwide manhunt, after police discovered a placenta in the couple's abandoned car. Following a trial and retrial at the Old Bailey, Gordon and Marten each received fourteen years in prison for the gross negligence manslaughter of their newborn in September 2025 Baby Victoria is believed to have died from hypothermia in a tent on the South Downs, weeks before her body was found Discussing the case in the wake of a review published in February by the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, Smith argued 'there must have been a better way' to deal with the couple than the police's very public pursuit. 'It struck me as being a bit like one of those blue light, sirens blaring police chases through the streets, when somebody's stolen a car or a bike,' Smith began. 'The police are chasing them, and then a bystander is hurt, or the people being chased end up crashing. Somebody dies, and you think surely there must have been a better way to resolve this than causing a fatality. 'I felt this was a similar kind of situation. For whatever reason, the police did this full-on public pursuit, and the more they did that, the more it drove Marten and Gordon off grid. 'The police knew they had the baby, and the more they pursued them, the more they tried to escape. It felt like there was a sort of tragic, terrible inevitability to what happened, and I can't believe there wasn't a better way to have dealt with that.' Victoria is believed to have died from hypothermia in a tent on the South Downs, weeks before her body was found. To evade the authorities, the couple had taken to living outdoors in the middle of winter. The new review, titled Protecting All Vulnerable Babies Better, was commissioned to answer questions like this, examining the systemic safeguarding failures exposed by Victoria's death. Another area the review examined was the pattern of non-engagement that ran through the family's history with social services, which the family court cited when removing the couple's four other children. Smith argued that social services failed to fully appreciate that Marten and Gordon were dealing with trauma, and needed a more careful approach than they received. Victoria, just days old when she died, was discovered on March 1 2023, her body concealed in a shopping bag in a disused allotment shed near Brighton Smith argued that social services failed to fully appreciate that Marten and Gordon were dealing with trauma, and needed a more careful approach than they received Subscribe to The Crime Desk to unlock The Trial+ podcast He said: 'It was puzzling to everyone in that courtroom, and clearly puzzling to social services and the judge in the family proceedings too: this mystery about their relationship, and what it was about them that made them put themselves first, before their children. 'The child safeguarding review was trying to understand why they didn't comply. What it referred to constantly was trauma. 'We don't know the full truth of this, but Marten alluded, on a number of occasions at the criminal trial, to abusive experiences she'd been subjected to as a child. 'Gordon, we found out, had been abused himself as a little boy back in the West Midlands, before he went to America. 'There's a lot of trauma packed in there, and each child removed from them was a loss, with grief around that. Finding a way to help them become better parents would have been the answer here, if it could have been done.' Listen to the full episode by subscribing to the Crime Desk. Subscribers gain access to Trial+, ad-free listening and a host of other benefits.