WATCH: Baby manslaughter pair ‘put their own wishes ahead of their child’s welfare’

What became a nationwide manhunt started when a placenta was found in a burnt-out car by the M61 northbound carriageway just outside Farnworth on January 5, 2023.

This led to an investigation and lengthy Old Bailey Trial that ended with Constance Marten, 38 and her partner Mark Gordon, 51, convicted of gross negligence manslaughter.

On duty on January 5 was Detective Inspector Dave Sinclair of Bolton CID when the call about the burnt-out car on the M61 came in.

The incident was reported to Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, then the Highways Agency and then Greater Manchester Police.

Emergency services had expressed concerns that there was nobody with the vehicle and noticed an item in the back of the vehicle that was unsettling.

DI Sinclair said: “We felt that we had discovered potential human remains. As it transpired, it was confirmed to be a placenta.

“That and the fact that nobody was in the vehicle, clearly there was an immediate concern for the welfare of who might have been in the vehicle and where they’d gone.

Detective Inspector Dave Sinclair (Image: GMP) “Motorway police had by that time attended and confirmed that they believed the item within the car – which had remarkably survived the fire – was human tissue.”

DI Sinclair’s team started to conduct background checks on the vehicle, which was not registered to a current keeper.

it had been registered in a false name and was not insured.

Work was done to establish the movements of the vehicle.

A police officer at the scene (Image: GMP) Initial enquiries found the fire and rescue service had some interaction with the occupants of the vehicle.

Witnesses had seen the vehicle set on fire, pull over onto the hard shoulder, and they had engaged with its occupants.

DI Sinclair said: “From eyewitness accounts there was what appeared to be a small newborn baby wrapped in a blanket with a female and a male, who the woman had referred to as Mark, who was trying to get things out of the back of the car while it was on fire.

The investigation was launched by Bolton CID (Image: GMP) “In effect the car was completely gutted, almost like a shell. We found quite a lot of paraphernalia related to babies; nappies, blankets, those sorts of things that you have for a newborn baby.

“That illustrated the fact we had concerns for that child.

“Miraculously, our CSI managed to retrieve remnants of paperwork that were wet through from the actions of the fire service and the heavy rain which survived the fire but had been discarded on the hard shoulder as the couple had tried to salvage items from the car.

The car was found burned out near Farnworth (Image: GMP) “These had details relating to Constance Marten and Mark Gordon.

“It was clear that the vehicle wasn’t registered to the couple, it wasn’t insured, and it had been paid for in cash. In hindsight, this was clearly an attempt to fly under the radar and not draw attention to themselves directly.”

DI Sinclair and his team were able to establish a picture of events.

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon headed north on foot up the embankment of the M61 motorway.

The burned out car (Image: GMP) They left the motorway at Anchor Lane and double backed on themselves parallel to the motorway.

There was a small area where they appeared to have had some belongings with them, but which they left behind as they could not carry them and decided to travel light.

A short distance away, on Albany Close in Little Hulton, they met a member of the public and asked him for a lift, and he dropped them off in Bolton town centre at around 8pm.

At Bolton train station around 8.15pm they got into a taxi with the baby still with them and that taxi took them to Liverpool.

Evidence was found in the burned out car (Image: GMP) At this stage of the investigation, evidence suggested the baby was alive and well.

Once the team had found correspondence that related to Marten and Gordon at the scene, this was fed back to Bolton CID, who then conducted wider checks with other force areas.

They built up a much more informed picture of the couple.

DI Sinclair said: “That heightened the investigation.”

He added: “We already had existing serious concerns because we had a newborn baby, people on foot in the vicinity of the motorway network, a vehicle having set on fire and left with no one inside it and an awful night in terms of weather.

DI Sinclair has spoken about his role in the case (Image: GMP) “Their actions were not those of responsible parents and added to that, from initial enquiries, we then became aware of information from about this couple that served only to escalate the concerns around why they hadn’t waited for the emergency services and had actively avoided the police.

“I think that active avoidance of authorities transpired to be evident from the events that sadly unfolded in the coming weeks.

“This served only to heighten the concerns we had because we had clear welfare and medical considerations for the baby and the mother as no medical treatment appeared to have been sought, so there was genuine concern for both mother and baby, particularly.” 

A missing persons appeal was published to try and trace the couple.

Officers were trying to get them to come forward so they could make sure that everybody was safe and well.

In the coming days, Bolton CID conducted significant enquiries behind the scenes.

These involved other departments within GMP and other forces as the search for Marten and Gordan spanned several police force areas across the country.

A file of evidence was handed over to the Metropolitan Police when they took over the case, and they highlighted the thorough work of GMP and Bolton CID in the early stages.

Marten and Gordon were arrested on February 27 and Victoria’s badly decomposed body was found in a Lidl bag inside an allotment shed in Brighton, East Sussex on March 1.

DI Sinclair, who retired from the force last year after almost three decades of service, said he had never experienced a case quite like this.

He said: “On the night it was a fast-moving situation.

“Based on the limited information initially available we had no specific identity for the people involved at first.

“I must thank the Crime Scene Investigators and DS Dom Beaver as well as detectives and officers from Bolton and across the force who worked tirelessly for long hours through that first night to piece information together and ensure this challenging and dynamic investigation maintained pace and direction.

“I think the motivation for the couple to do what they did, coupled with the information that we had from our systems, supported the view that they were actively concealing their movements, concealing their identities and concealing the fact they had a baby.

“As a parent myself, I just think that this was a terrible tragedy and a really sad sequence of events that unfolded which was completely avoidable had they come forward and sought medical and welfare support for the baby.

“The discovery of Victoria in the coming weeks served only to reinforce what a tragedy it was.

“To not come forward, in my view, would suggest their actions were clearly selfish, putting their own wishes before their child’s welfare in their goal to keep avoiding the authorities and likely removal of Victoria from their care.

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“I just feel really sad. This is such a tragic waste of life.

“It’s quite upsetting that we’ve got a young baby girl who has never really had any choice or opportunity in life and my view would be that this is solely down to the actions of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon.

“I think there was ample opportunity for them to have sought help, to have addressed the welfare concerns for the baby, to have come forward to the authorities and to have got that help.

“And potentially there may have been a different outcome.”

Marten and Gordon were both found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence.

At an earlier trial last year, Gordon and Marten were convicted of child cruelty, concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice by not reporting the death of their baby.

Source – INDIA TV