The story behind socialite Constance Marten’s attraction to rapist Mark Gordon remains untold. Known affectionately as “Toots” due to her brother’s struggles pronouncing her name correctly, Marten was once featured in Tatler as the “Babe of the Month” in 2009, portraying a carefree life of society events and vacations. Fast forward 14 years, and Marten, now with partner Mark Gordon, found themselves at the center of a police search after fleeing with their infant, who tragically perished. Gordon, labeled a ‘serial psychotic sociopath’ and convicted rapist with a troubled past, ultimately faced charges of gross negligence manslaughter. The perplexing question lingers among Marten’s loved ones: How did a young woman from a privileged background end up in such dire circumstances with a criminal, leading to the loss of her child?
Constance Dorothea Marten, born in 1987 to aristocratic parents Napier Anthony Sturt Marten and Virginie, grew up in luxury at Crichel House in Dorset. Surrounded by aristocratic ties and grandeur, Marten’s childhood was idyllic, sharing adventures with her siblings on the vast estate. Educated at prestigious schools in Dorset, Marten was known for her warmth and playful spirit, though her mischievous nature sometimes found her in trouble. Despite the strict environment at school, Marten’s rebellious streak persisted, leading to comical incidents like the infamous fake glasses episode during a class photo session. Marten’s carefree upbringing sharply contrasts with the tragic events that later unfolded, leaving many to wonder about the unraveling of a once charmed life.
Arty in nature rather than academically inclined, she disclosed to friends later on that she had been diagnosed with narcolepsy. Despite her popularity, her school years were not always joyful, as she was deeply affected at age nine when her father abruptly left the family. Marten was known by classmates as a prankster.
In 1996, citing following voices in his head, Napier turned his back on his wife, young children, and his £115 million fortune. He shaved his head, left for Australia, and explained, “Even with young children, I had to abruptly leave home.” After being away for six months with no contact with his children, a bitter divorce ensued.
Two years after Napier’s departure, Marten’s mother married a Belgian banker, Guy de Selliers, and the family relocated to London, while Marten remained at boarding school. Marten decided against applying to university after completing her A-levels, opting instead to satisfy her wanderlust by traveling. She frequented Verbier and had a fondness for mountain climbing.
Around this time, her devoutly Christian mother introduced her to the Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) church in west London. Marten became an active member of the congregation, participating in church events and activities. She was described by a friend as warm, likable, and popular among everyone she encountered. She later visited the Synagogue Church of all Nations in Nigeria in 2006.
However, as time went on, Marten found herself ensnared in a dark situation when she fell under the influence of the manipulative Nigerian pastor TB Joshua in the summer of 2006. She was initially captivated by his charismatic persona and ended up staying in Lagos to assist in running the church ministry, despite objections from her family.
Following her time in Nigeria, many female devotees accused Joshua of assault, abuse, and even rape. Although there are no allegations of Marten being sexually abused during her stay, she recounted how Joshua would demean her and other white followers. They were reprimanded for not standing when Joshua entered the room, forced to eat his leftovers, and deprived of sleep – a particular challenge for Marten due to her narcolepsy struggles.
After three months, Marten escaped Joshua’s influence with her mother’s help and left Nigeria. The experience had a profound impact on her mental health, with a friend stating, “All I can say is TB Joshua ruined her life.” Marten was deeply traumatized, undergoing a significant transformation from the person she was before to the one who returned home.
Upon her return, Marten reported experiencing paranormal episodes periodically. Despite considering a documentary exposing SCOAN’s exploitative practices, it never materialized. She reconnected with old friends, engaged in sporadic paid work, and pursued modeling and nanny jobs in different countries, while also volunteering with children in various nations.
Marten’s social life flourished, and she frequented upscale events, one of which was hosted by Viscount Cranborne in Dorset. She later enrolled at Leeds University for Arabic and Middle Eastern studies, immersing herself in university life and joking about cider being one of her “five a day.” She spent a year in Cairo during the Arab Spring, capturing protests in Tahrir Square and earning an award for her photography.
After graduating with a 2:1, Marten joined Al Jazeera’s London bureau as a senior researcher, aspiring to become a journalist. Fluent in Arabic, she hoped to report from the field but felt frustrated as her ideas were not considered by senior colleagues. Her poor time management was cited as a factor hindering her professional credibility.
She pretty much set her own hours and came and went as she pleased. She was well-liked but somewhat unreliable, which isn’t the best approach when starting out.
Marten fully embraced university life, even jokingly considering cider one of her five a day. During this time, friends also mentioned an unhappy relationship with a boyfriend that ended poorly, leaving her emotionally vulnerable.
After graduating, Marten briefly worked as a project manager for a creative charity in east London, but the position didn’t last long. In January 2014, she started a five-month NCTJ course with the Press Association in central London. While on the course, she was described as sweet-natured but slightly eccentric, often falling behind and missing classes.
Following university, Marten traveled extensively and tried her hand as a freelance photojournalist but struggled to find consistent work. With financial support from a trust fund, she lived a lively life among friends. In her late twenties, while others were settling down, Marten was still searching for meaning. She enrolled in a drama course in Essex and was known for being friendly and down-to-earth, but also for her occasional quirky behavior.
Despite her natural acting talent, Marten faced challenges in keeping up with her class, often citing family issues and lack of support as obstacles. While she didn’t hide her aristocratic background, she seemed to carry some guilt about it, feeling misunderstood by her parents.
With a distanced family tie to Oswald Mosley through her paternal aunt’s marriage to one of Mosley’s sons, Oshineye found herself sharing this surprising connection with a friend. Reflecting on the revelation, Oshineye recalls her response, “She did tell me one time, ‘I hope you’re not going to be angry with me if I tell you this: I’m related to Oswald Mosley.’ I was like, ‘You can’t help who you’re related to.’”
Scheduled to graduate in July 2016, Oshineye made the difficult decision to drop out of her course about two months before completion. Struggling to keep up with her coursework and facing new circumstances in her personal life, she navigated this period of change.
In contrast to Oshineye’s background, Mark Gordon’s upbringing and experiences were starkly different. Born in London in 1974 to a single mother from Jamaica, Gordon grew up in inner-city Birmingham, facing a childhood marked by instability. The youngest of five siblings, Gordon never knew his father, who chose not to acknowledge or provide for him.
Gordon’s early life was tumultuous, with significant events shaping his youth. In 1986, his mother, Sylvia Satchell, a nurse, moved Gordon and his sister Karen to the United States. Initially settling in New York, they later relocated to Florida in 1989, seeking a safer environment. In Miami, Gordon, who aspired to become a doctor, faced challenges in school and social interactions.
Struggling to connect with peers, Gordon withdrew into seclusion, developing an unhealthy obsession with pornography. In April 1989, at just 14 years old, he committed a heinous crime, breaking into a neighbor’s home and subjecting her to a horrific rape ordeal. The victim, a single mother, described Gordon as chillingly abnormal during the attack, which lasted for hours.
Now 65, the victim recounted the traumatic experience, expressing disbelief at Gordon’s inhumane behavior. Gordon’s actions left a lasting impact on her life and her children, who witnessed the harrowing events unfold in their home.
Gordon’s descent into criminality at a young age starkly contrasts with Oshineye’s path, highlighting the diverse trajectories individuals can navigate in their lives.
He was not awake. Fearing what Gordon might do to them, she tried to keep them calm by saying she had a headache and would be up soon. Eventually, she managed to persuade Gordon to let her go, and he fled. However, three weeks later, on May 21, he struck again by breaking into another house. After coaxing the family dog out of the house, he removed a window to climb inside. This time, he was armed with a spade and strategically placed kitchen knives around the house. Quietly passing a sleeping one-year-old, he entered the master bedroom. But his intended victim was not alone, and her husband, Patrick Nash, jumped out of bed to confront him. Gordon, then two weeks away from his 15th birthday, used the spade to attack Nash. Despite suffering a severe head wound, Nash managed to chase Gordon out, with blood pouring from his injury. Speaking from his home in Florida, Nash recounted, “Everything happened so quickly… I just saw a shadow, and then I was bleeding. I wasn’t supposed to be there that morning; I was supposed to go to a flea market with my dad, but we changed our plans. Thank goodness I was home…” Three days later, Florida detective Gary Celetti approached Gordon’s door after neighbors reported his suspicious behavior. The officer described how the teenager, accompanied by his older brother, appeared “very nervous.” Celetti told him, “Mark, if you did something, you have to deal with it. If you didn’t, you have the rest of your life ahead of you. You’re just a kid.” Gordon eventually confessed to the crimes during his interview with the police, retracting his initial claim that someone named “Jerome” had forced him at gunpoint. He was charged with multiple offenses and tried as an adult due to the seriousness of the crimes. Described as “cruel and devious” by his first victim, Gordon was found guilty of several charges in March 1990. He served 20 years in prison in Florida before being released in 2010 and deported to Britain. Despite his mother’s plea for leniency during sentencing, he was given a life sentence.
Despite Gordon’s confession and subsequent conviction, some of his family members still doubt his guilt. Karen Satchell, his older half-sister at 54, has implied that she believes Gordon was framed by the police in Florida. She posted a photo on social media last January showing her younger brother at around 13 years old, just before his rape conviction. In the post, she stated that Gordon, at age 14, didn’t resemble a monstrous rapist wielding a shovel and urged people to stop spreading lies about him.
In July of the same year, shortly after Gordon and Marten were charged with child cruelty and causing or allowing a child’s death, Karen expressed her heavy-heartedness online about the burdens and injustices of life. She continued to show her support for the couple during the Old Bailey proceedings by posting a collage of images depicting mothers with their babies, accompanied by a plea to consider the couple’s innocence.
Gordon later successfully appealed to withdraw his initial plea due to inadequate legal advice and miscalculated sentencing. However, facing the prospect of no chance of acquittal, he pleaded guilty again. He received a 40-year prison sentence, with half to be served.
After spending 20 years in various Florida prisons, Gordon was released on parole in January 2010 and deported to the UK, where he was required to comply with sex offender registry regulations. He settled in east London, working in construction. In 2016, Gordon met Marten by chance in a London store, and their relationship blossomed.
Their connection seemed fateful, leading them to move in together. Marten supported them financially through her family trust fund. Despite introducing Gordon to her family, they did not embrace him, leading to potential tensions.
During a trip to Peru in 2017, the couple participated in a retreat and consumed ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew. They also partook in a local marriage ceremony, though it lacked legal recognition in Britain. Their return prompted Marten to inform her loved ones of the developments before the message was cut off.
Cutting off all contact effectively, Marten sent a sudden text to her family expressing her decision to live her life differently. She made it clear that the choice was hers alone, asking them not to reach out or try to meet with her. Marten wanted everyone to respect her decision, whether for better or worse.
Contrary to what outsiders may think, it was Marten who distanced herself from her family when she got involved with Mark. The extent of her self-imposed isolation became evident in 2021 during her brother Max’s wedding to Ruth Aymer, a close friend of Marten’s. Despite the lavish ceremony attended by hundreds and featured in Vogue, Marten was notably absent.
In 2017, as Marten’s family uncovered Gordon’s criminal past, Marten was pregnant with their first child. Living in a campervan without prenatal care, Marten only sought medical attention when concerns arose. After Marten and Gordon disappeared, sparking a nationwide alert, baby Victoria’s body was tragically discovered on an allotment near Brighton.
Marten and Gordon’s intentions to live off-grid were complicated by Gordon’s criminal history, accumulating hefty fines and bailiff pursuits. Despite her family’s efforts to assist, including hiring private investigators and settling fines, Marten and Gordon faced further troubles with the law.
In a dramatic turn of events, Marten arrived at a Welsh hospital in labor under a false identity, claiming to be a runaway from a traveler family. The situation escalated when social workers connected them to a national alert and police were called. Gordon’s violent outburst led to his arrest and subsequent court appearance, resulting in a jail sentence and fine.
Social services later found Marten living in a tent with inadequate provisions for her newborn during winter, prompting further intervention.
A tent set up in a “festival-style” was sagging under the weight of rainwater and filled with bags of trash and bottles of urine. Social workers, alarmed by the child’s well-being, successfully obtained a supervision order. Concerns were raised by social workers regarding Marten falling asleep with her baby, and she was cautioned about the risks of accidental suffocation. Both Marten and Gordon seemed inexperienced in caring for a newborn, likely due to Gordon’s extensive time in prison and Marten’s privileged upbringing.
In the spring of 2019, Marten gave birth to their second child without seeking medical assistance or registering the birth as required by law. The couple, now with two children, shifted from their nomadic lifestyle to settle in London, opting to rent rundown properties instead of accepting help from a trust fund to purchase a home. A family insider noted Marten’s difficult behavior towards the trustees, describing her as challenging, contrary, unpredictable, and entitled.
Emails allegedly from Marten requesting money were suspected to be authored by Gordon by the source. Subsequent to the birth of their second child, Marten discovered she was pregnant again, but a fall from a first-floor window in November 2019 left her with severe injuries, including a shattered spleen. Refusing to cooperate with the police, Marten downplayed the incident as an accidental fall while attempting to adjust a television aerial.
A family court judge later determined Marten had been a victim of domestic violence. Marten’s father intervened by applying for temporary guardianship of the children, offering to provide a home in Dorset with a nanny until Marten could join them. Despite the offer, Marten fled to Ireland to evade her family’s involvement, renting a rural cottage near Dublin while Gordon’s passport was confiscated, preventing him from joining her. Eventually, Marten returned to the UK to be with Gordon, giving birth to their third child in May 2020.
The family continued to move between dilapidated rental properties, contrasting sharply with their previous life at Crichel House, which had been sold for £34 million to a US hedge fund billionaire. In May 2021, a year after the birth of their third child, Marten had a fourth baby. However, social services stepped in, leading to a judge ordering that all four children be taken into care in January 2022.
Following a court order for adoption, Marten soon found herself pregnant with baby Victoria, determined to keep her at all costs. In the lead-up to Victoria’s birth, Marten and Gordon chose to live off-grid, traveling the country in rundown cars and staying in budget accommodations. Victoria was born in a remote Airbnb cottage in Northumberland on Christmas Eve 2022, but tragically, the baby passed away within weeks. After 54 days on the run, the couple was apprehended and faced charges including manslaughter, child cruelty, and perverting the course of justice. Their first trial at the Old Bailey in January 2024 lasted six months due to delays caused by the couple’s efforts to disrupt proceedings. Despite their attempts, Marten and Gordon were ultimately found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter. While Marten faces a substantial prison sentence, her family remains supportive. One close source mentioned that although life will be challenging for Marten, her father is willing to offer help and support if she chooses to seek it.
