Aristocrat Constance Marten’s partner Mark Gordon is a convicted rapist who served 22 years in a US prison, the Old Bailey has been told.
Marten and Gordon are both on trial over claims they killed their baby daughter Victoria after just a few weeks of life when they went on the run from authorities in early 2023.
On Thursday, jurors were told that Gordon has convictions in the US over two incidents dating back to 1989, resulting in a 40-year jail term which he served just over half of in prison.
Prosecutor Tom Little KC told the court Gordon was 14-years-old when he committed offences of armed kidnapping, four sexual assaults, and armed burglary.
“He broke into a house of a next-door neighbour, and before doing so he had placed a nylon sock over his face to conceal his identity”, he said.
“He was armed with a knife and hedge clippers. He demanded the female present in the property undress.”
Mr Little said Gordon was convicted after a trial of attempting to rape the woman, orally raping her, and carrying out further sexual assaults.
“That female was held by him for a period of four-and-a-half hours against her will in the property.”
Jurors heard the incident happened on April 29, 1989 in Florida, and three weeks later on May 21, in the same state, Gordon carried out an armed burglary on a home and attacked one of the occupants.
“He entered the property occupied by a family”, said Mr Little.
“When he did so, he was armed with a flat-headed shovel.
“Once inside, he beat a male occupant with that shovel about the head. Subsequently, he pleaded guilty to two offences.”
The court was told Gordon was sentenced for all the offences in February 1994, having spent almost five years in custody since his arrest in 1989.
He spent 22 years in prison in total before being set free.
Gordon, questioning the UK police officer who produced the US court records, suggested his human rights had been breached in the police investigation, and claimed he was interviewed by police without an accompanying adult.
Earlier this week, jurors were told that Gordon has another past conviction from 2017 for assaulting two female police officers at a hospital in Wales.
The trial heard the incident happened shortly after the birth of his first child with Marten, when the couple were asked to identify themselves.
A police officer told the court Gordon gave a false name, then attacked her and her colleague in a bid to break free from their questioning.
In his evidence last week, Gordon, who is representing himself, made no reference to his troubled past but told jurors: “Everybody faces challenges in life.”
He said his mother was a hard-working nurse who was passionate and empathetic and had instilled compassion in him.
He had said: “The idea I was underprivileged was not the case. My mother had two or three houses. She always provided for us. She showed me empathy.”
The couple went on the run from authorities in late 2022 after the birth of their fifth child, Victoria, in a bid to keep her from being taken into care.
Jurors have heard their first four children had already been taken off them.
The couple sparked a major national manhunt, before they were finally arrested in late February near Brighton.
Baby Victoria had already died, and her body had been left in a Lidl bag for life in a disused shed, covered in rubbish.
In his earlier evidence, Gordon blamed the police manhunt for setting off a series of “calamitous” events culminating in Victoria’s death.
He insisted that he and Marten “put ourselves out” to ensure the baby’s wellbeing and “no-one could have anticipated” her death.
In an emotional outburst in the witness box, Gordon had complained they were treated like “monsters” and dragged through the mud like “scum” over what happened and had not had time to grieve for their child.
Agreed facts were also read to the jury, which included that Virginie de Selliers, Marten’s mother, engaged the private investigators group, London Security Group Limited, to trace her daughter in 2016.
Jurors were also told that Marten’s father, Napier Marten, approached the same firm and a “tracing company” called CSM Partners Limited to approach Gordon in 2017.
Ms De Selliers also instructed a firm of private investigators called Blackstone Consultancy in 2021 to locate Marten and Gordon.
Jurors were also told that on December 17 2019, Mrs Justice Judd sitting in the England and Wales High Court Family Division made an order, following an application by Napier Marten, that Marten and Gordon’s two children were made wards of the court and their parents prohibited from moving them out of the jurisdiction of the court.
The wardship proceedings finished in January 2020, meaning the order was not in force from that date.
Details of cash withdrawals from Marten’s bank accounts from December 2022 to February 2023 were also revealed to the jury.
Gordon and Marten were convicted in a first trial of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice. They deny charges of gross negligence manslaughter and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
