Constance Marten: fresh child cruelty charge pressed against aristocrat and partner after baby's death

An aristocrat and her partner whose disappearance sparked a weeks-long manhunt are facing two fresh charges, including one of child cruelty, after their baby daughter’s death.

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were charged with manslaughter by gross negligence on 2 March, after the body of two-month-old Victoria was found in Brighton. They were also charged with concealing a child’s birth and perverting the course of justice.

Ahead of a hearing at the Old Bailey on Monday (10 July), it emerged that the defendants now faced new charges of child cruelty, and causing or allowing the death of a child.

It is claimed they caused the baby’s death by their own “unlawful act” or failed to “take such steps as could reasonably have been expected” to protect the baby, PA reported. The alleged offences are said to have taken place between 4 January and 27 February.

Marten, 36, and Gordon, 49, of no fixed address, appeared from custody before Judge Mark Lucraft KC on Monday for a short hearing. Marten appeared by video link from Bronzefield prison and Gordon from Belmarsh jail and spoke only to confirm their identities.

Judge Lucraft pushed a plea and case management hearing back from 18 August to 22 September, and confirmed the provisional trial date had been set for 2 January next year. A further hearing was set for 25 August.

Victoria’s remains were discovered in a plastic bag in a locked shed at an overgrown allotment in the Hollingbury area of Brighton on 1 March, not far from where missing couple were tracked down and arrested two days earlier.

Police had been trying to find the defendants and the baby for several weeks.

An initial post-mortem examination was unable to establish the baby's cause of death.