Two expensive tests surrounded by labor delay, A defendant represents himself who examined his own partner from inside the dock, and old BaileyThe most senior judge started allegations of sabotage – testing Constance Marten And Mark Gordon was not like anyone else.
The case was already an extraordinary Before it also reached court: one Rich Who went to run and started setting up “off-grind” camps In 2023 in winter, preventing the baby from taking care of his rapist partner and his child like his other children.
A high-profile police were discovered for the trio, in which a shocking search for the remains of Baby Victoria got buried under the rubbish in a shopping bag in a abandoned briston shade.
But it took another two and a half years to bring the couple to justice-a long, chaotic, painful legal odisy, full of tension, dispute and delay-was finally found guilty for the gross negligence of their fifth child on Monday with the pair.
The fact is that A Decision Has reached, it can be described as miraculous, walk alone on all allegations. The couple – unwavering and united in front of the years behind the bars – had an extreme mistrust of the officers who put them in the course of a confrontation in the court. They were asked to repeatedly speak in the dock and pass the note as they were firm to exclude their tests as long as possible.
First testsWhich began in January 2024, ended a string of disappointing delay, and ended for six months instead of two before the collapse. Parents were found guilty last year Hair cruelnessBy completing the curriculum of justice by hiding the body and hiding the birth of a child, the jury was discharged, as they could not reach the verdict on the charge of a mangelotter.
Nine months later, in March this year, six months of return began. It was still prone to more disruption and was again dramatically overran, while often the tettering appeared on the edge of the collapse.
When Marten asked for the jury details of Gordon’s violent rape sentence, the prosecution later questioned whether the slip was intentionally attempted to vandalize the action.
Even the presiding judge, Mark Lukraft Casey, claimed a point that the defendants were trying to “sabotage” or “derail”. In another phase, a clearly exaggerated judge Lukraft, who sits as a London recorder, told Marten: “I have been sitting as a full -time judge for thirteen years now and I have never been shown a attitude that I have not shown to anyone.” He said that the two teenagers who were earlier in his dock that day were “rather was treated better – and they blamed for murder”. When Marten refused to see the Crown Psychiatrist, he said: “My patience has been tried several times with him.”
The days of the court were lost as Marten complained of toothache and fatigue from his three -hour travel from Surrey Jail, where he was held. But when the judge arranged for him to see the dentist, he refused treatment.
Both parents gave evidence in their own defense, but refused to cross-examining by the prosecution, Marten, with the Crown’s Joel Smith KC as a “devilish” and “heartless”, as he asked him whether he asked Victoria’s body in a bag full of rubbish. After stressful exchange, he refused to return to the witness box.
By the time the jury retired to consider its decision, both Marten and Gordon had a dispute with their prominent barrister. Marten, through a string of top silks over the last two years, opted to allow his junior lawyer to continue on his behalf, while Gordon insisted that he would represent himself for the second half of his retric, despite receiving more than £ 70,000 with more than £ 70,000 in the first test.
The bizarre turn of the events saw him examining his wife and co-operatives, reading a list of questions in a microphone from inside the dock.
It was more delayed by then they argued for an additional time to get ready at every turn, before they told the jury that they were “inhuman” and “vilified” in their closing speech.
When he portrayed a positive picture of his upbringing, the prosecution was depicted to the prosecution to successfully apply to present the so -called “bad character” evidence against him, resulting in a jury convicted the US for rape as a teenager, for which he went to jail for two decades.
Gordon never gave evidence in the first test, changed his mind to do so without clarification. However, Marten was in the dock for several days.
Despite starting his testimony with a request for toilet brakes, his evidence became the focal point of the first testing, several times his account on one side was both admirable and heart-dashed, and on the other side was quite spectacular and illusory.
Talking about Marten, in a second test, the prosecution said that “lies fall from his mouth, we suggest, and have always done, such as the confused is floating in the air”.
He accused the jury baby Victoria “a chance to stand up” as he accused the couple of “choosing and answering what questions”.
Marten and Gordon will be sentenced on the date of setting.
