UK couple found guilty of killing baby daughter after going on the run in winter

LONDON (Reuters) -A British aristocrat and her partner were convicted on Monday of the manslaughter of their baby daughter through gross negligence, more than two years after their disappearance sparked a nationwide manhunt.

Constance Marten – whose father was once a page to the late Queen Elizabeth – and Mark Gordon went to live "off-grid" in late 2022 when Marten was pregnant after their previous children were taken into care, prosecutors said.

"Their selfish desire to keep their baby girl led inexorably to the death of that very baby," prosecutor Tom Little said at the start of their trial at London's Old Bailey Court earlier this year.

Marten, 38, and Gordon, 51, slept for several weeks in a tent in southern England during freezing winter temperatures, part of what Little described as the couple's "arrogant and ultimately grossly negligent conduct".

The pair pleaded not guilty to manslaughter by gross negligence, but were convicted by a jury on Monday.

A jury had been unable to reach a verdict on that charge at an earlier trial, after which Marten and Gordon were convicted of perverting the course of justice, child cruelty and concealing the birth of a child.

The couple will be sentenced in September, British media reported.

Samantha Yelland, Senior Crown Prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service in London, said in a statement: "Their reckless actions were driven by a selfish desire to keep their baby no matter the cost – resulting in her tragic death."

Marten and Gordon were sought by police from January 2023 after their abandoned car was found on fire with a placenta wrapped in a towel inside, near Manchester in northern England.

After a nearly two-month search, during which the couple were frequently on the front pages of British newspapers, Marten and Gordon were located in Brighton on England's south coast.

Their child's body was found two days later.

(Reporting by Sam TobinEditing by Gareth Jones)