THE ex-boyfriend of aristocrat Constance Marten said she was “doomed” from the moment she met her new criminal lover.
Francis Abolo dated Marten the year before she met convicted rapist Mark Gordon and her life spiralled into chaos.
SuppliedConstance Marten and Francis Abolo used to go to festivals together as a couple[/caption]
PACCTV footage of Constance Marten, baby Victoria, and Mark Gordon[/caption]
PAMarten, whose family lived at Dorset estate Crichel House, received nearly £19,000 in payments into her account from her trust fund while on the run[/caption]
PAWhen he was just 14 years old, Gordon was sentenced to 40 years in prison for raping a 30-year-old woman at knifepoint in Florida in 1989[/caption]
Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, lived off-grid with their baby Victoria – on the run from police – sparking a £1.2 million national manhunt in January 2023.
The tragic tot died while living in a tent in the South Downs with hardly any clothes or “means of keeping or remaining warm”.
Victoria, who spent “much of her life” in a Lidl bag for life, was later discovered dead inside an abandoned shed.
This week, Marten and Gordon were jailed for 14 years each at the Old Bailey.
They were convicted of manslaughter by gross negligence, child cruelty, concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.
Marten’s ex boyfriend has now spoken out to reveal his nightmares and regret for not trying to stop her relationship with Gordon after they broke up.
He said the aristocrat regularly talked about her desire to have a big family and settle down, and this will haunt him forever.
Francis said: “After we split, she got together with Gordon and I’d heard very bad things about him from my circle of friends.
“I was told he was violent, into heavy drugs and booze.
“I know Constance was no saint herself when it came to drugs but this bloke was on a very very different level.
“I should have done more to protect Constance and get her away from this man.
“He was bad news and had Constance under his spell. Of that I have no doubt. She was doomed from the moment she met him.
“I have nightmares, wishing I had done more to win her back but it is too late now and I will regret that for the rest of my life.”
The manhunt began after police discovered a placenta in their car when it exploded on a motorway in Manchester on January 5, 2023
Constance was beautifully spoken and seemed to have the world at her feet.
Francis Abolo
More than 100 officers pursued the couple as they fled in taxis.
They travelled hundreds of miles across the country from Bolton to Liverpool, then Harwich in Essex, and on to east London before camping in the South Downs near Brighton in the freezing cold.
After little Victoria died in their flimsy tent, the pair dumped her body beneath an empty beer can and sandwich packaging hidden in a disused shed.
Events manager Francis, 46, dated Marten for a year before she got together with Gordon.
When he was just 14 years old, Gordon was sentenced to 40 years in prison for raping a 30-year-old woman at knifepoint in Florida in 1989.
Speaking out, the woman said he put her through a four-and-half hour nightmare while her young children were home in Miami.
Gordon, who was 14 at the time, broke into her house wearing a nylon stocking over his face and armed with a knife and hedge clippers before raping her.
His victim, now 66, previously branded him a “monster” who “took everything from me”.
She told The Sun she is “disappointed” that the couple will only serve 14 years behind bars.
Recounting his own relationship with Marten, Francis said: “We got together in July 2015 after meeting at a warehouse party in an east London flat.”
SuppliedConstance Marten and Francis Abolo when they were dating[/caption]
PACCTV image of Mark Gordon and Constance Marten in London[/caption]
PAThe Lidl bag in which baby Victoria was found[/caption]
He was besotted with the “beautifully spoken” woman, who is the daughter of aristocrat Napier Marten.
Marten, whose family lived at Dorset estate Crichel House, received nearly £19,000 in payments into her account from her trust while on the run.
Her father was a page to the late Queen, while her grandmother was a goddaughter to the Queen Mother.
Despite her connections, the couple chose to “deprive the baby of what she needed” – including “warmth, shelter and food and ultimately safety”.
Describing when he met her, Francis said: “Constance was beautifully spoken and seemed to have the world at her feet. Everybody was attracted to her.
“She was strikingly beautiful and back then didn’t have a bad bone in her body. So I find it so upsetting now to see the monster she has become.
“Constance, who I nicknamed ‘Toots’, regularly stayed over at my flat in east London and we partied at festivals like all young people do.
“I knew nothing about her privileged background and the vast stately home Crichel House in Dorset which had been her family’s ancestral Manor for generations.
Constance Marten’s life in jail alongside baby killer Lucy Letby revealed… from ‘cowering’ in cell to bizarre demand
By Michael Hamilton
CONSTANCE Marten has “cowered” in her cell and refused to mix with other inmates after being handed a 14-year sentence for killing her newborn baby Victoria.
Jailed aristocrat Marten, 38, has also turned down a string of prison jobs despite being offered them by guards.
And worried officers are checking Marten around the clock amid fears she could harm herself or be attacked following the sentencing.
They have opened an ACCT – Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork – document on Marten to monitor her treatment and well-being.
Blue-blooded Marten, 38 – raised in one of the UK’s finest stately homes, Critchel House in Dorset – is now prisoner A9624X at tough HMP Bronzefield in Surrey.
She is serving her sentence on the jail’s Unit 4 alongside killers including ex-nurse Lucy Letby and tragic 10-year-old Sara Sharif’s Mum Beinash Batool.
And a source said: “She has reacted to the sentence very badly and thought she would get off much more lightly.
“Since returning to jail from the Old Bailey, Constance has basically cowered in her cell and tried not to come out.
“She knows she is a target because of her high-profile and notoriety.
“The staff have offered her a few jobs that would be considered plum roles inside – including as a cleaner, in the library and the kitchen.
“But she has turned them all down. She has also asked for a move off the unit so she is away from child killers like Letby and Batool.
“She thinks her crime is much less serious than theirs and views them as killers – although that’s exactly what she is.
“It has been explained to her that she is in the same category as them, and would be in much more danger on a different unit.
“The severity of her crime and her sentence does not seem to have sunk in and she is a bit deluded.”
“At the time she was a drama student and didn’t seem to have any money worries like most, which seemed unusual.
“We had a deep physical and emotional connection and Toots regularly talked about her desire to have a big family and settle down.
“Even though I was young, I foolishly thought that maybe we could have moved things to the next level and started our own family.
“If we had, her life would have taken a totally different path full of love. Of that I have no doubt.”
Marten met Gordon in an east London shop, and from that moment she met him “she cut off her old life and friends”, her ex said.
“I should have done more to track her down and I will regret the fact I didn’t until the day I die.
“I was shocked when the story first broke about them going on the run with their baby.
“I just didn’t recognise this Constance as the kind loving person I knew.”
At their sentencing, Judge Mark Lucraft condemned their “shameful conduct”, adding “over the course of the trial you have sought to put the blame for the baby’s death on everyone else.”
She was doomed from the moment she met him.
Francis Abolo
He also branded them “arrogant” for showing no remorse for their actions.
It was reported that Marten is already planning for her release, boasting to a probation officer that she will regain access to her £2.4 million family trust fund at the age of 40.
During the sentencing, Marten argued with court officials after they stopped her passing notes to convicted rapist Gordon.
Marten – who, like Gordon will have to serve two-thirds of their sentence – is planning to appeal her conviction.
She is serving her sentence on HMP Bronzefield’s Unit 4 alongside killers including ex-nurse Lucy Letby and tragic 10-year-old Sara Sharif‘s Mum Beinash Batool.
At their first trial they were convicted of concealing the birth of a baby, child cruelty and perverting justice.
They were found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter in July after a second trial.
Francis added: “My only hope is that being free from Gordon whilst in prison will give Constance time to think over her actions and the fact she has destroyed so many lives.
“As for Gordon, he can rot in hell as far as I’m concerned.”
PACourt artist sketch of Constance Marten being questioned at the Old Bailey[/caption]
PAMarten being interviewed by police[/caption]
PABodycam footage issued by the Metropolitan Police of Marten being detained[/caption]
PAA tent Marten and Gordon were living in[/caption]
Timeline of baby ‘killing’ – how couple evaded cops
CONSTANCE Marten and Mark Gordon allegedly sparked a 54-day manhunt across the UK after vanishing with their baby Victoria.
Here’s how the pair’s journey began…
December 20, 2022
Marten and Gordon booked into a holiday cottage in Northumberland, with the rental due to end on Boxing Day. The owner told jurors he found the property in “something of a state” on December 28.
December 24, 2022
The couple claim their baby daughter was born this day but this has been disputed by prosecutors.
December 28, 2022
Their Suzuki broke down on the M18 motorway so a recovery driver took them to a nearby Sainsbury’s. There was allegedly no sign of the baby but the back and side windows of the car had been blocked by clothing.
January 4, 2023
Marten and Gordon checked into the Ibis hotel at the Lymm Services in Cheshire then later the AC Hotel in Manchester.
January 5, 2023
The couple’s Peugeot 206 catches fire on the M61 motorway in Greater Manchester. Police launch an urgent probe after finding placenta, burner phones and Marten’s passport, jurors were told.
She and Gordon are taken to a Morrisons store in Bolton by a member of the public before being seen on CCTV at the nearby Bolton Interchange station.
The couple allegedly use Marten’s trust for a taxi to Liverpool, then a £400 cab to Harwich in Essex.
Cab driver Ali Yaryar, who picked the couple up from Liverpool, told the court: “I think the baby had no clothes”.
January 6, 2023
The couple arrive in Harwich and check into a Premier Inn at around 3am. They later move to the Fryatt Hotel, where they paid in cash, it was said.
January 7, 2023
Marten and Gordon travel by taxi to Colchester then to East Ham in London. The couple allegedly buy a buggy from Argos then grab another cab to Whitechapel.
They ate in a Brick Lane restaurant then dump the new buggy – choosing instead to keep Victoria in a Lidl bag, jurors heard.
January 8, 2023
The couple spend £475 on a taxi from Hornsey to Newhaven in East Sussex and walk to the South Downs National Park.
January 9, 2023
Both Marten and Gordon claim baby Victoria died on this day – making her 16 days old, the court was told. It is said there is no way of knowing this for sure.
January 12, 2023
Marten is captured buying snacks and petrol with cash but there was no sign of the baby. Prosecutors say she bought the fuel to cremate the baby but changed her mind.
January 16, 2023
Marten and Gordon are seen setting up a tent in Stanmer Park Nature Reserve in the South Downs despite the cold weather.
February 16/17, 2023
The couple are spotted near Hollingbury Golf Course in rural Sussex allegedly pushing a buggy with no baby. Their tent is later seen in Coldean Lane in Brighton
A driver sees the pair walking towards Stanmer Park with something under Marten’s puffer jacket, the court heard.
February 19, 2023
Gordon and Marten are allegedly seen in their tent in the park with a very young baby with a “wobbly” head. Jurors told the baby had no socks, blanket or hat on.
February 27, 2023
The couple are arrested in Hollingbury Place in Brighton but do not reveal Victoria’s location at first, it is said.
March 1, 2023
Tragic Victoria is found dead in a Lidl bag covered in rubbish inside a disused shed “like refuse”, the court is told.
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