Constance Marten and Mark Gordon facing retrial for killing baby daughter

19 June 2024 , 14:21

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Their trial began in January and was set to last just four to six weeks (Picture: PA)

Aristocrat Constance Marten and boyfriend Mark Gordon face a retrial after an Old Bailey jury was unable to reach verdicts.

Marten, 37, and Gordon, 50, denied killing their baby daughter Victoria, who was found dead inside a Lidl bag for life on an allotment in Brighton, East Sussex, last March.

Their trial began in January and was set to last just four to six weeks.

Jurors first retired to consider their verdicts on April 30 and spent more than 72 hours deliberating between frequent breaks lasting up to two weeks at a time.

Judge Mark Lucraft, KC, the Recorder of London, today discharged the five men and five women left on the panel. 

He told them: ‘I will be writing to each of you not only to thank you for your exceptional commitment to public service and dedication.

‘I will be excusing you from jury service for the rest of your lives.

‘In my view you have shown truly exceptional examples of dedication to public service since January.’

The CPS will decide whether to seek a retrial by a date to be confirmed in the next two weeks.

Marten appeared in court today wearing a blue blouse and black trousers while Gordon wore a blue shirt.

They sat with a dock officer between them as the jury was discharged.

There had been a high-profile police search for the missing baby which culminated in the couple’s arrests in Brighton last February, with the child was found days afterwards.

Marten and Gordon were each charged with manslaughter by gross negligence, causing or allowing the death of a child, concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty and perverting the course of justice.

The pair denied all counts.

Sophia Martinez