Constance Marten and Mark Gordon convicted of the death of their child in London

[Beringia]

I saw the story on The Guardian and couldn't make head or tails of it.

Constance Dorothea Marten was born in 1987, the eldest child of the aristocratic Napier Anthony Sturt Marten and his wife, Virginie.



Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, were never accused of deliberately harming their baby Victoria, meaning the fact that he had spent 22 years in prison for a violent sexual crime when he was 14 was initially deemed inadmissible in their manslaughter trial.

The court had heard how their alternative lifestyles, sleeping in a tent, and refusal to accept help or parenting advice, had raised red flags for social services before their four other children were taken into care.

Similarly, it was their aversion to authority that indirectly led to the death of their fifth child Victoria – and put them on a collision course in the courtroom.

The first case eventually concluded with the defendants being convicted of perverting the course of justice, failing to report the birth of a child, and child cruelty.

https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/national/25312398.elephant-courtroom-crashed-constance-martens-trial/

[mwmisses4289]

1. If I am understanding it correctly,

the gist of it is the parents were accused of murdering their youngest child due to neglect and abuse. Seems the father had a violent past, and the mother may be mentally ill. Due to neglect and abuse, their four older children were put into the u.k.'s version of cps.
Apparently the trial became a circus, with protesters and supporters of the mom causing issues outside the building where the trial was being held, because the mom is the daughter of a noble family and seems to be pretty, and some still believe (erroneously) that those of the nobility and/or wealthy can do no wrong.
That's my reading of it, take it for what it's worth.

[Beringia]

2. Thanks, quite right, I couldn't absorb it

But I guess hearing she was rich and then her baby died in a cold tent was hard to grasp