**Insight into Marten and Gordon’s Troubled Past Revealed in Welsh Hospital Fracas**
A disturbing episode at a Welsh hospital has shed new light on the chaotic and dangerous relationship between Constance Marten and Mark Gordon, the couple now notorious for the tragic death of their new-born daughter. Years before their names hit national headlines, the pair’s attempt to vanish from society led them to an unlikely hideaway – a tent pitched behind a Carmarthen supermarket.
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon came under public scrutiny in early 2023. Police discovered their torched car on the M61 near Bolton, uncovering alarming evidence: a placenta wrapped in a towel on the back seat, with baby clothes scattered nearby. Fears for the welfare of their baby triggered a nationwide search. However, it has now emerged that police in Wales had dealings with the couple as far back as 2017, long before their tragic infamy.
The relationship between Marten and Gordon began by chance in a London shop in 2016. With Marten hailing from a privileged background as the daughter of Napier Marten, once a page to the Queen, and Gordon’s troubling history as a convicted violent sex offender, their unlikely partnership quickly raised both intrigue and alarm. Despite her aristocratic roots – Marten had grown up in a stately Dorset home and was affectionately known as “Toots” – she appeared isolated from her family, who were reportedly wary of Gordon’s influence.
Gordon’s own trajectory was arguably even darker. Having spent more than two decades in a US prison for a violent offence committed in his early teens, he returned to the UK to start a new chapter with Marten. By 2017, they were expecting their first child. It was around this time that Marten abruptly stopped attending antenatal appointments in London, prompting the hospital to alert maternity units nationwide to be vigilant.
In a bid to escape detection, Marten and Gordon fled to Carmarthen, Wales. Preferring to live out of sight, the pair set up camp in a tent near a Tesco supermarket and the nearby Five Fields allotments. Anxieties about her family’s potential use of private investigators fuelled Marten’s actions. She later likened this period to a high-stakes game of “cat and mouse”.
The situation escalated in April of that year when Marten presented herself at Glangwili Hospital to give birth. Using the pseudonym Isabella O’Brien, she adopted an Irish accent and claimed to be from the Traveller community. However, sceptical hospital staff, already on heightened alert, contacted the police when her story did not add up.
Dyfed-Powys Police officers responded and quickly found themselves embroiled in a confrontation. Gordon, having given a false identity of ‘James Amer’ and a fictitious date of birth, soon became agitated. During the subsequent trial, Detective Sergeant Delmina Jones recalled the incident vividly, describing how Gordon’s demeanour shifted abruptly before he lashed out at an officer. “He started rocking backwards and forwards, muttering under his breath,” DS Jones testified. “Suddenly, he shot up, pacing and clenching his fists. Then he pushed my colleague aside.”
What followed was a chaotic struggle in the middle of the hospital’s maternity unit, culminating in officers using incapacitant spray to subdue Gordon. He was arrested and later sentenced to 20 weeks in prison for assault, causing him to miss the early weeks of his child’s life.
Despite this episode, the couple soon surfaced in London again, where their troubled pattern of behaviour continued. Marten became pregnant once more, and the brief, bizarre Welsh interlude appeared to be over – though, as subsequent events would demonstrate, this was far from the final chapter of their story.
The harrowing details of their life on the margins – from aristocratic estrangement to violence and tragedy – remain a stark reminder of how seemingly ordinary interactions can mask underlying turmoil. As the sentencing for the manslaughter of their daughter approaches this September, the Welsh hospital incident serves as a chilling prologue, offering a rare window into the mayhem that ultimately led to a devastating conclusion.