A couple who went on the run with their newborn daughter have been found guilty of her manslaughter by gross negligence.

Constance Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, were convicted on Monday following a lengthy and chaotic retrial at the Old Bailey, which the judge accused them of trying to "sabotage" and "derail".

It comes more than two years after the decomposed body of their baby, Victoria, had been discovered in a shopping bag in Brighton.

An earlier trial at the same court found them guilty of concealing the birth of a child, perverting the course of justice by not reporting her death, and of child cruelty - the latter of which could not be reported until now.

To now have been found guilty of manslaughter by gross negligence means that the jury found that the couple's behaviour had been so exceptionally bad and fell below the standard of reasonably competent parents.

The prosecution had argued during their retrial that Marten and Gordon had made a conscious decision to not keep Victoria safe, and that it was clear their actions had been deliberate.

Central to the prosecution's case was that Victoria had died from hypothermia or by being smothered while co-sleeping in a small, thin tent in cold, damp and windy conditions in January 2023.

It is thought that the couple went on the run to avoid the authorities and keep Victoria, their fifth child together, with their four other children having being been previously taken into care.

Marten and Gordon both refused to stand as the jury delivered its unanimous verdict on Monday. Marten shook her head and sighed, while Gordon sat with his eyes closed and his head resting back on the wall.

Gordon also told the judge following the verdicts that he planned to "win on appeal" and described it as an "unfair trial".

Speaking afterwards, chief prosecutor Jaswant Narwal said the defendants had shown "little remorse for their actions" and had used "different antics to frustrate and delay court proceedings".

"I hope these convictions provide a sense of justice and comfort to all those affected by this tragic case."

Samantha Yellend, London's senior crown prosecutor, said it was "shocking" that the couple would expose their child to "such obvious risks" and that their "reckless actions were driven by a selfish desire to keep their baby no matter the cost".

In the retrial, the jury also heard that Gordon had been convicted of rape in Florida in 1989 when he was aged 14.

For legal reasons, this conviction - for which he was sentenced to 40 years in prison and deported back to the UK after serving 20 years - was not made known during the first trial.

The couple became the subjects of a police manhunt in 2023 when officers found evidence of a recent birth in a burnt-out car near Bolton.

They were found on 27 February 2023 and Victoria was discovered dead two days later in an allotment shed in the Hollingbury area of Brighton.

She had died in a tent in the South Downs in January that year.

Det Supt Lewis Basford, who led the search for them, said Victoria's death was "completely avoidable" and that the couple had many opportunities to "do the right thing and... ask for help".

"We have waited more than two years to secure justice for baby Victoria and I am pleased we have now been able to get that for her - despite her parents trying to disrupt and derail not one, but two trials," he said.

He added that as a father himself, he found it "hard to comprehend how, instead of providing the warmth and care their child needed" Marten and Gordon "chose to live outside during freezing conditions to avoid the authorities".

The couple are expected to be sentenced in September.

Four people who died when a small plane crashed at London Southend Airport are believed to be foreign nationals, police have confirmed.

The airport has been closed since emergency services were called to the incident involving a Beech B200 Super King shortly before 16:00 BST on Sunday.

Witnesses described a "fireball" type explosion soon after the Netherlands-bound light aircraft had taken off.

All four people were killed in the crash - two pilots and two passengers - and Essex Police said in a press conference on Monday it believed they were foreign nationals.

The names of the four who died have not been released but officers are now working to confirm their identities.

Ch Supt Morgan Cronin said the victims would be "treated with the utmost respect and dignity".

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has put in place a significant air exclusion zone surrounding the crash site.

All flights to and from the airport on Monday have been rerouted, with passengers advised to check with their airline for advice.

The Beech B200 Super King Air plane was operated by Zeusch Aviation, based at Lelystad Airport in the Netherlands, which has confirmed it is "actively supporting the authorities with the investigation".

The plane had flown from the Greek capital Athens to Pula in Croatia on Sunday before heading to Southend. It was due to return to Lelystad on Sunday evening.

Detectives and forensic teams are working in parallel with the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), the Royal Air Force, Essex County Fire and Rescue Service and London Southend Airport to work out what happened.

Speaking at the press conference, Lisa Fitzsimons, a senior inspector at the AAIB, said it was "too early to speculate on what caused this tragic accident".

"If there are safety lessons that can be learned, we will make recommendations that will aim to prevent a similar accident occurring," she said.

Eight of its inspectors are now at the crash site.

A London Southend Airport spokesperson said: "Our thoughts are with those affected by [Sunday's] events and all passengers impacted by this disruption.

"We will restart flight operations as soon as possible and will continue to update the public on developments."

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Production has begun on the new TV adaptation of Harry Potter, as the first picture of the lead actor in costume was released.

JK Rowling's series of novels has already been made into a film, but HBO is now producing a TV series which is expected to take 10 years to complete.

Producers released the first picture of Dominic McLaughlin in costume as Harry Potter on Monday and confirmed several new cast members.

Rory Wilmot hast been cast as Neville Longbottom, Amos Kitson as Dudley Dursley, Louise Brealey as Madam Rolanda Hooch, and Anton Lesser as Garrick Ollivander.

They join stars such as John Lithgow, who will play Dumbledore, Nick Frost as Hagrid, Janet McTeer as Minerva McGonagall and Paapa Essiedu as Severus Snape.

The three child actors who will play Harry, Ron and Hermione were announced in May.

The programme will be filmed at Warner Bros Studios Leavesden in Hertfordshire, which is where the eight Harry Potter movies were also shot.

HBO has previously said the series would be "a faithful adaptation of the iconic books".

The TV series will have more breathing space to explore the plot lines from the books without the time constraints of the film.

Producers also announced new production staff, several of whom have previously worked on The Crown such as director of photography Adriano Goldman and hair and makeup designer Cate Hall.

The first series will launch in 2027.

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Mark Gordon is a dangerous "psychopath" who should have been locked up for life as a child, an American woman he raped 36 years ago has told the BBC.

Gordon was jailed for attacking his neighbour at knifepoint in Miami when he was aged 14 and BBC News has now obtained US court papers revealing the shocking nature of the crimes.

Gordon, 51, and his partner, Constance Marten, 38, have been found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter, after their baby, Victoria, died while they were on the run from UK authorities.

The pair became the focus of a nationwide search after Gordon - who was put on the sex offender's register when he returned to the UK - and Marten disappeared while she was pregnant.

Social services had already taken four of their other children into care.

Gordon has always maintained his rape conviction was unlawful.

'I know he is evil'

For legal reasons, the jury at their first Old Bailey trial was not told Gordon had been convicted of rape in 1989 but details emerged during the retrial.

He was sentenced to 40 years in prison and, after serving 20 years, was deported back to the UK.

BBC News can reveal the full details of the brutal assault, having obtained court documents from his sentencing hearing at Broward County Courthouse, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1990.

The victim of his crime, Jane - not her real name - told the BBC she had followed the recent legal proceedings from thousands of miles away in the US.

She says she was "floored" when she found out the man who attacked her more than three decades ago was on the run from police in the UK in 2023.

Jane says Gordon should have been imprisoned in the US for life. "The four-and-a-half hours I spent with him was enough to know he is evil," she says.

Warning: This story contains descriptions of a violent sexual attack.

Gordon, who was born in the UK, moved to the US as a child with his mother. They initially lived in New York, before settling in Miami.

US court papers reveal how, in late April 1989, he broke into his neighbour's bungalow one night, wearing a mask and armed with a knife and a pair of garden shears.

The court heard how Gordon raped Jane, a mother-of-two, multiple times in an attack that lasted more than four hours. He threatened to kill her children, who were aged nine and seven at the time, if she screamed.

Jane, who was then aged 30, told Judge Stanton Kaplan she had been woken by the sound of her dog barking.

"I went to my bedroom door and hesitated," she said. "I opened the door and was met with the sight of a masked figure dressed in black." Jane said she screamed and he told her: "Don't scream or I'll kill your children."

"I knew there was no way out," she said.

Jane then described being repeatedly raped by the teenager at knife point.

"I was told to say goodbye to my children because this was the day I was going to die. I was told I was worthless, not as good as the others, which led me to believe I was not the first one he had raped.

"As he was telling me these things, he was running the knife up and down my body. He was jabbing at my skin deep enough to hurt but not cut.

"He was holding it over my heart, saying: 'All I have to do is push and you are dead'. I was terrified my children would find my body covered in blood. He enjoyed the nightmare he was causing."

The same court heard, three weeks after attacking Jane, Gordon broke into the home of a couple called Patrick and Annette Nash, who lived a few doors down.

Prosecutors said masked and dressed in black, he made his way to their bedroom. When Annette woke and screamed, Gordon hit her husband with a shovel before fleeing.

At a hearing on 29 February 1990, Gordon pleaded guilty to four counts of armed sexual battery (rape), one of armed kidnapping, one of aggravated battery and two of burglary with a weapon. He later withdrew his guilty plea and stood trial in a chaotic court case in 1994 where he was convicted.

The defence's main witness in mitigation during the sentencing hearing was Gordon's mother, Sylvia Satchell. She revealed to the judge that her son had been the victim of sexual abuse at the age of four while at a nursery in Birmingham.

"I'm asking for a little leniency for him," she told the judge. "This is a first offender and I wouldn't want him to be a hardened criminal at this young age. He's only 15 now."

In a foretaste of his behaviour during his Old Bailey trials, Gordon tried to sack his lawyer and said he was too sick to attend court. He was eventually sentenced to 40 years in prison.

After the attack, Jane's life fell apart. She said her home no longer felt safe and she could not spend another night there.

"Now I'm plagued by nightmares, living with friends or relatives, afraid to be alone," she told the court in 1990.

"My children lost me for months while I dealt with what happened to me."

Jane says she still remembers packing what she could into her car and moving away. Eventually her home was sold for a fraction of what it was worth.

She now lives in a different part of the US, but still misses the Florida climate - particularly during the winter. "The cold is so painful," she says. "Once a Florida girl, always a Florida girl - yet another loss caused by Mr Gordon."

During Gordon's 1990 sentencing hearing, held before he retracted his pleas, Jane implored the US judge: "Please protect the innocent by keeping the guilty in prison for his life. Show him no mercy. Show him the guilty are punished and not merely chastised."

"I wanted them to sentence him as an adult and not just let him out when he was 18," Jane says now. "He showed me no mercy. So show him no mercy and save the other women out there.

"I think he's just evil."

If you have been affected by the issues raised in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action Line

A BBC documentary about Gaza breached editorial guidelines on accuracy by failing to disclose the narrator was the son of a Hamas official, the corporation's review has found.

BBC director general Tim Davie commissioned the review into Gaza: How to Survive a War Zone, after it was pulled from iPlayer in February when the boy's family connections emerged.

The review found that the independent production company, Hoyo Films, bears most of the responsibility for the failure. However, it said the BBC also bears some responsibility.

The BBC said the programme should not have been signed off, and it was taking appropriate action on accountability.

The BBC said it was taking a number of steps to prevent a similar breach being repeated:

• The corporation will create a new leadership role in news documentaries and current affairs. The new director role on the BBC News board, which will be advertised in the next week, will have strategic leadership of its long form output across the news division.
• New editorial guidance will be issued that careful consideration must be given to the use of narrators in the area of contested current affairs programmes, and that the narrator will be subject to a higher level of scrutiny
• A new "first gate" process will be introduced, meaning "no high-risk long form programmes can be formally commissioned until all potential compliance considerations are considered and listed"

The corporation did not name any individuals facing disciplinary action.

Hoyo Films said it took the reviews findings "extremely seriously" and said it "apologises for the mistake that resulted in a breach of the editorial guidelines".

The company said it was pleased the report had found there was "no evidence of inappropriate influence on the content of the documentary from any third party".

It said it welcomed the report's recommendations and "hope they will improve processes and prevent similar problems in the future".

Hoyo Films said it would work closely with the BBC to explore the possibility of using some material for re-edited and re-versioned shorter films for archive on iPlayer.

The BBC's director general Tim Davie apologised, saying the report "identifies a significant failing in relation to accuracy".

"We will now take action on two fronts," he continued. "Fair, clear and appropriate actions to ensure proper accountability and the immediate implementation of steps to prevent such errors being repeated."

'Not appropriate'

The review found three members of the independent production company knew of the father's position as deputy minister of agriculture in the Hamas-run government in Gaza, but no-one within the BBC knew this at the time.

However, the report criticised the BBC team for not being "sufficiently proactive" with initial editorial checks, and for a "lack of critical oversight" of unanswered or partially answered questions.

The review said it had seen no evidence "to support the suggestion that the narrator's father or family influenced the content of the programme in any way".

It added the narrator's scripted contribution to the programme did not constitute a breach of due impartiality.

However, the report concluded that the use of the child narrator for this programme was "not appropriate".

A financial examination found that a fee of £795 was was paid for the narrator, paid to his adult sister, an amount which was not "outside the range of what might be reasonable in the context".

The review was conducted by Peter Johnston, the BBC's director of editorial complaints and reviews.

The BBC Board said: "Nothing is more important than trust and transparency in our journalism. We welcome the actions the Executive are taking to avoid this failing being repeated in the future."

A report into BBC show MasterChef has found 45 allegations against Gregg Wallace were upheld including one of unwelcome physical contact and another three of being in a state of undress.

In total, the report says 83 allegations were made against the TV presenter, with the majority of the substantiated claims relating to inappropriate sexual language and humour, but also culturally insensitive and racist comments.

The inquiry, conducted by an independent law firm, was ordered by MasterChef's production company Banijay in the wake of a BBC News investigation which first revealed claims of inappropriate sexual comments against Wallace.

Ahead of the report's release, Wallace insisted it had cleared him of "the most serious and sensational allegations".

Last week, it emerged that he had been sacked as presenter of the cooking show, as dozens more people came forward to BBC News with fresh claims against him.

The 50 people who came forward to BBC News said they encountered Wallace across a range of shows and settings.

Around 20 were on Banijay productions, but others related to areas like night clubs, awards ceremonies and other TV shows. Some of the individuals we heard from also contributed to the Banijay inquiry.

A decision has not yet been made about unseen series of MasterChef which was filmed last year.

The report also says that ten standalone allegations were made against other people, two of which were substantiated.

Both of those substantiated allegations , which did not involve Wallace, relate to inappropriate language, one of swearing and one of racist language.

The investigation team also found evidence that between 2005 and 2024, six complaints were raised with the production company and six with the BBC.

Patrick Holland, chief executive of Banijay UK, said in earlier years, "it is clear that escalation procedures were not as robust as they should have been".

"We are extremely sorry to anyone who has been impacted by this behaviour and felt unable to speak up at the time or that their complaint was not adequately addressed," he added.

A BBC statement said: "Although the full extent of these issues were not known at the relevant time, opportunities were missed to address this behaviour – both by the production companies running MasterChef and the BBC.

"We accept more could and should have been done sooner."

The BBC said it apologised to "everyone who has been impacted by Mr Wallace's behaviour", and confirmed it has no plans to work with the presenter in future.

Gregg Wallace has been contacted for comment.

Four people who died when a small plane crashed at London Southend Airport are believed to be foreign nationals, police have confirmed.

The airport has been closed since emergency services were called to the incident involving a Beech B200 Super King shortly before 16:00 BST on Sunday.

Witnesses described a "fireball" type explosion soon after the Netherlands-bound light aircraft had taken off.

All four people were killed in the crash - two pilots and two passengers - and Essex Police said in a press conference on Monday it believed they were foreign nationals.

The names of the four who died have not been released but officers are now working to confirm their identities.

Ch Supt Morgan Cronin said the victims would be "treated with the utmost respect and dignity".

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has put in place a significant air exclusion zone surrounding the crash site.

All flights to and from the airport on Monday have been rerouted, with passengers advised to check with their airline for advice.

The Beech B200 Super King Air plane was operated by Zeusch Aviation, based at Lelystad Airport in the Netherlands, which has confirmed it is "actively supporting the authorities with the investigation".

The plane had flown from the Greek capital Athens to Pula in Croatia on Sunday before heading to Southend. It was due to return to Lelystad on Sunday evening.

Detectives and forensic teams are working in parallel with the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), the Royal Air Force, Essex County Fire and Rescue Service and London Southend Airport to work out what happened.

Speaking at the press conference, Lisa Fitzsimons, a senior inspector at the AAIB, said it was "too early to speculate on what caused this tragic accident".

"If there are safety lessons that can be learned, we will make recommendations that will aim to prevent a similar accident occurring," she said.

Eight of its inspectors are now at the crash site.

A London Southend Airport spokesperson said: "Our thoughts are with those affected by [Sunday's] events and all passengers impacted by this disruption.

"We will restart flight operations as soon as possible and will continue to update the public on developments."

Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon's failures as parents are revealed by damning court papers, which have been released to BBC News.

A years-long family court case ended in January 2022 when their four children were permanently placed into care.

The documents show how over the years the couple fled to Ireland to avoid contact with social services when Marten was pregnant, refused antenatal and newborn healthcare and repeatedly missed contact sessions with their children once they were in care.

A turning point in the proceedings came when a family court judge ruled, "on the balance of probabilities", Gordon had caused Marten to fall from a first-floor window while she was pregnant.

Their fifth child, Victoria, died in January 2023 after they had gone on the run from authorities. Marten, 38, and Gordon, 51, were found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter on 14 July following a retrial.

They were convicted of child cruelty, concealing baby Victoria's birth and perverting the course of justice during their first trial in June 2024.

Until recently, family court hearings have taken place in private and journalists have not been permitted to report on them.

BBC News led a legal challenge which resulted in the publication of the documents.

The family court judgments, made across five years, provide an important insight into the couple's chaotic life together and the danger judges decided that posed to their four children.

Family court proceedings began in south Wales, where the couple's first baby was born, and continued in London, when Marten and Gordon moved there.

The papers reveal:

• Gordon did not call 999 after Marten fell from the window and he refused to let paramedics into their home to treat her
• Afterwards, Marten, pregnant with their third child, fled to Ireland to avoid contact with social services
• The couple put their children's health at risk by refusing standard antenatal and newborn healthcare
• Once their older children were in care, they repeatedly missed contact sessions with them
• Faced with permanently losing her children, Marten told a court she would separate from Gordon in a desperate bid to keep them - but the judge did not believe her

Marten and Gordon - a convicted rapist - returned from travelling around South America in June 2017. She was four months pregnant with their first child.

The pair had travelled through a country during an outbreak of the Zika virus - which can affect a baby's development - and the London hospital where Marten attended antenatal appointments became concerned. But Marten missed at least two more check-ups and then disappeared.

The hospital was worried enough to put out a "national alert". Marten's family also hired a private detective to find her.

Months later, she resurfaced in south Wales after going into labour.

Using the name Isabella O'Brien, and putting on an Irish accent, she told staff at Glangwili Hospital, in Carmarthen, that she was from the travelling community. But they weren't convinced and, remembering the national alert issued in London, called the police.

When officers arrived, there was a physical struggle in front of the other mothers and their babies - and Gordon was arrested. He was later sentenced to 20 weeks in prison for assaulting two female police officers.

This marked the start of a long and often chaotic journey through the family court system, in which Gordon and Marten repeatedly switched lawyers, represented themselves, or failed to turn up for hearings.

In the first court judgment, made by District Judge Taylor at Swansea Family Court in July 2018, a psychiatrist warned that Gordon had "the capacity to act in a violent manner", and could be violent when under stress.

He spent the initial weeks of their first baby's life in Cardiff prison, while Marten stayed with families in a series of mother and baby placements.

When Gordon was released, Marten travelled to visit him in London, leaving the newborn behind for 17 hours.

"There are some concerns that on occasions these parents prioritise their own relationship over [their baby's] needs," Judge Taylor recorded. Similar phrases crop up time and again throughout the 84 pages of court documents released to the BBC.

The judge found the couple had "poor decision-making skills" and a "potential to act impulsively".

At least twice, professionals warned Marten about the dangers of falling asleep with a newborn on her chest - Marten reportedly said she had taken the advice on board.

This first brush with the family courts ended with a six-month supervision order, allowing a social worker to "advise, assist and befriend" the couple's baby. But almost immediately they left Wales for London.

They lived in a series of houses in the east and south-east of the city, leaving without paying rent on more than one occasion - despite Marten having a regular income from a family trust fund.

In one of these houses, their second baby was born. They called a private midwife but Marten had given birth to the baby by the time she arrived. Gordon refused to tell the midwife his own name, and became angry when she called an ambulance, the court documents say.

By late 2019, Marten was pregnant with her third child, and this is when judgments from Her Honour Judge Reardon, at the East London Family Court, pick up the story. A local authority in London alleged domestic abuse between Marten and Gordon, that they had failed to provide adequately for their children's medical needs, and that they had attempted to evade an investigation into their welfare.

The judge wrote that the legal proceedings in front of her were "protracted and delayed", mainly because of the way the parents had conducted the litigation. Their attendance at hearings was intermittent and they gave excuses such as "toothache" and a "car accident" for not turning up.

'Help me, help me'

The night of 21 November 2019 would be a key turning point.

A neighbour was woken by screaming in the early hours of the morning. When he looked outside, he saw Marten falling from a first-floor window and landing on a car.

According to the judgments, Gordon did not call 999, but someone else did. When paramedics arrived, Marten was inside the house screaming: "Help me, help me."

Marten spent eight days in hospital being treated for a shattered spleen and lacerations to a kidney. She was 14 weeks pregnant, but the baby survived.

Gordon told police officers he and Marten had both fallen out of the window while trying to fix the TV aerial, but they remained suspicious.

• If you have been affected by the issues raised in this story, help and support is available via the BBC Action line

In her judgment Judge Reardon said: "I find on the balance of probabilities that the father caused the mother to fall out of the window. I am not able to find whether he pushed her or whether she fell during a struggle. The former may be more likely."

When Marten left hospital, social workers wanted to talk to her, but she fled with her two children to a hotel in Ireland. She was eventually persuaded to return, a month later. The two children were removed from her on arrival, and she has never got them back.

By the time Judge Reardon made her fact-finding judgment in January 2021, the couple's third baby had been born. This child was also removed when the couple refused to go to a residential assessment unit.

Judge Reardon said it wasn't easy to evaluate the dynamics of their relationship. She found Gordon was likely to have perpetrated a serious act of violence on Marten, so it would be natural for her to fear him, she said. But despite this, she formed the view that it was Marten who was the "dominant personality".

"The strong impression given by the parents is that of two people who are fiercely united in an unrelenting struggle against a non-existent opponent," she said.

"I conclude that the parents have repeatedly prioritised their own need for privacy and secrecy above their children's health.

"Essentially, these parents have rolled the dice three times in refusing the vast majority of standard maternity and newborn healthcare and checks. They have been lucky each time, but plenty of pregnancies do involve complications which, if unchecked or untreated, can become life-threatening for the mother or the baby or both."

It was a tragic prophecy of what was to befall the couple's fifth child, Victoria.

The couple began repeatedly missing contact sessions with their children, and then stopped visiting altogether. Their eldest child became distressed and developed a stammer. "My mummy and daddy cancelled again," the child told nursery staff.

In January 2022, Judge Reardon made her final decision: the couple's four children, one only a baby, would be permanently removed.

The judge said observations from the contact sessions left her with "vivid snapshots of what could, if this were the complete picture, be a loving and integrated family".

But she had to balance that against the risk of harm to the children, caused by the likelihood of exposure to violence between the parents and their attempts to avoid local authority intervention.

"Perhaps most hurtful, from the children's point of view, is their parents' baffling lack of commitment to them over the course of these lengthy proceedings and their inability, or unwillingness, to do what needed to be done in order to reclaim them," Judge Reardon said.

"It is a picture that I, as a reasonably experienced family court judge, find very difficult to comprehend."

At the last minute, in a desperate attempt to hold on to her children, Marten had offered to separate from Gordon, but the judge simply did not believe she would go through with it.

She couldn't see either parent providing a safe home any time soon.

Eight months later, Gordon and Marten - who was by now pregnant again - left their house in south-east London, and went on the run from authorities - beginning the fatal journey that ended in baby Victoria's death.

The Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel is now carrying out a national review into Victoria's death, to examine how "agencies can better safeguard children in similar circumstances".