Is a CULT at the heart of why baby killer Constance Marten has cut her mother dead?

Escorted back to HMP Bronzefield on Monday evening, Constance Marten was greeted by the noise of her fellow inmates banging on their cell doors. 

The taunting reception came after news had filtered through to the jail that she had been handed a 14-year sentence earlier that day for killing her baby. 

Behind bars, as in wider society, those who commit such crimes are particularly despised. As such, sources at the prison say she will be placed under close surveillance to ensure her safety. Yet so far she has chosen to keep herself isolated.

Although she shares the unit with other high-profile child killers including Lucy Letby and Beinash Batool, who is serving a 33-year sentence for the murder of her ten-year-old stepdaughter Sara Sharif, Marten has refused to socialise with them.

She rarely takes part in educational activities or workshops, preferring to spend lengthy periods in her cell.

‘She complains as much as any other inmate I’ve seen in my career,’ a prison source previously told this newspaper. ‘She seems to think she is above the jail and everyone in it.’

One would think Marten would welcome support from anywhere she could get it.

And yet in court, just hours before, she had shunned the one person willing to publicly give it – her mother.

Constance Marten’s (pictured) mother said in court that she saw her daughter ‘grow from a spirited, adventurous girl to a determined young woman always ready for an adventure’

Not only did Virginie de Selliers attend the sentencing hearing at the Old Bailey, sitting in the well of the court, she also pleaded for mercy on behalf of her daughter.

‘As her mother I saw her grow from a spirited, adventurous girl to a determined young woman always ready for an adventure,’ she wrote in a character reference read out in court. ‘She had a feisty spirit and a shy way of standing up for what she believed in.

‘It is my sincere hope when considering her future that her courage, loyalty and deep sense of fairness are not overlooked.’

She added that she was ‘horrified’ by the way the court and the newspapers had portrayed her 38-year-old daughter, saying ‘the cruelty of the labels used’ did not reflect the person she remembered.

Brave words, given the circumstances. After all, Marten had gone on the run with her newborn daughter Victoria in freezing temperatures, with the judge ruling that the tiny baby died as a result of neglect of the ‘gravest type’.

As ever, the only ‘loyalty’ on show from Marten was firmly directed towards her partner – and partner-in-crime – 51-year-old Mark Gordon.

Throughout the hearing she repeatedly tried to communicate with him in the dock, whispering and passing notes, much to the annoyance of security guards and the judge.

But there was not even a glance for her mother.

Virginie de Selliers with her son, Tobias Marten, arriving at the Old Bailey for her daughter’s trial. ‘According to someone who has kept in touch with Constance, her [mother’s] presence has caused her enormous distress – and even fury’

She cut her dead, resolutely refusing to return the looks the 66-year-old directed at her, much as she had done throughout her first trial, which Mrs de Selliers also attended.

Sources said that at one point during this week’s hearing Marten requested her mother leave the court. Having attended Monday’s morning session, Mrs de Selliers was noticeably absent after lunch when the judge handed down his sentence.

One family friend said: ‘According to someone who has kept in touch with Constance, her [mother’s] presence has caused her enormous distress – and even fury.’

Marten’s father, Napier, who separated from Mrs de Selliers when his daughter was nine, is similarly estranged from Marten.

But, as would appear to be the case with his ex-wife, he too holds out hopes of reconciling.

‘I would really, really like to see my daughter again,’ he said last week, breaking a long-held silence on the case.

‘I had wanted to visit her on remand and I am more than happy to do so now.’

It is understood that Mr Marten had previously undertaken the complicated process of applying to visit Marten in Bronzefield – only for her to change her mind about seeing him at the very last minute.

Her parents hope that, now she is separated from Gordon, her feelings towards them may change. Last month, The Mail on Sunday revealed that she had been banned from calling her partner or sending letters to him at HMP Belmarsh.

Mrs de Selliers with Constance as a toddler. When she was 18, her mother took her to Nigeria to spend time at the Synagogue Church of all Nations. What happened to her there is unclear

‘With luck and good conduct she will be out in about seven-and-a-half years,’ said the friend, adding that such a ‘thumping’ sentence had been anticipated given Marten’s lack of remorse and the way she had behaved in court. ‘Hopefully she will then move on with her life and not waste it on Gordon.’

The prospect of them ever getting back together in the future and having another baby is a chilling one, they added.

‘God forbid she decides she then wants to try for another child,’ the friend said.

‘Nature should have taken its course by then and on release, aged 46, the odds would be against her conceiving naturally.’

Against her, but not impossible. Let us not forget that this is a woman who went ahead with having Victoria despite her actions leading to her other four children being taken into care for their own safety and well-being.

Such was her determination to keep this child that she and Gordon, a convicted rapist, went on the run after her birth.

Marten claimed Victoria was smothered after she fell asleep with the baby inside her jacket after breastfeeding. But Judge Mark Lucraft ruled that the child died from hypothermia three days after the family moved into a flimsy tent on the South Downs in East Sussex in January 2023.

The baby’s corpse was found dumped in a shed in a Lidl bag-for- life, under a carton containing a half-eaten cheese sandwich and other rubbish.

Marten and Gordon were convicted of gross negligence manslaughter in a retrial after previously being found guilty of child cruelty, concealing Victoria’s birth and perverting the course of justice.

Marten’s parents hope that, now she is separated from Mark Gordon, her feelings towards him may change. Last month, The Mail on Sunday revealed that she had been banned from calling her partner or sending letters to him at HMP Belmarsh

Her sentencing this week marked the end of an extraordinary fall from grace for Marten – one that had its roots in the Georgian splendour of Crichel House, the imposing stately home in Dorset that had been in the family for generations.

There were Royal links, too. Her grandfather was equerry to George VI and her father Napier was a page to Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1986, Napier Marten married Belgian-born Virginie Camu and the following year Constance, the first of four children, was born.

But in 1996, the couple split after Mr Marten left his family to ‘find himself’ in Australia, signalling the start of a bitter matrimonial break-up.

Marten and her brothers were largely raised by Virginie and her second husband, Guy de Selliers, a wealthy investment banker.

Pictures from the time show Marten enjoying an idyllic childhood. But that was then.

The woman who last week coldly blanked her mother from the dock is a very different person from the former Tatler ‘Babe of the Month’ – and one who bears little resemblance to the description given in Mrs de Selliers’ surprisingly complimentary character reference.

Her stepfather also submitted a statement, describing her as a ‘fascinating woman’ who is ‘fundamentally a very kind person’.

Contrast their supportive words with what Marten said in court during her evidence. She used the opportunity to bad-mouth her parents – branding them ‘bigots’ and accusing them of wanting to erase her children from their bloodline.

So why did Mrs de Selliers offer her support – and what is at the heart of Constance’s apparent hatred of her mother? As a source close to her side of the family previously told the Daily Mail, Mrs de Selliers was never just going to give up on her only daughter. 

‘A mother who turns up to the trial every single day to hear what she has heard is not a mother who has abandoned her daughter,’ he said.

Ever since the day in 2016 that Marten met Gordon – who was convicted of rape aged just 14 and who served 20 years in a US jail – the family believed that if only his influence over her could be broken then she might see sense.

‘Gordon is the most vile, vile individual,’ the family friend said, describing him as both a ‘controlling predator’ and an ‘odious creep’ who ‘got his claws into’ Marten.

Within months Marten made it very clear that everything in her life had changed.

‘Completely out of the blue, everyone in Constance’s life, friends, family, everyone, suddenly got a text from her saying she had chosen to live her life in a different way,’ the family friend said. ‘She said that… she did not want anyone to try to contact her gain, not to try to meet up with her, and she wanted everyone to respect that.’

Gordon and Marten had gone on the run with their newborn daughter Victoria (pictured) in freezing temperatures, with the judge ruling that the tiny baby died as a result of neglect of the ‘gravest type’

Family concerns for her well-being grew when they learned of Gordon’s criminal record.

But it is also the case that at least some of Marten’s issues with her mother pre-date her meeting with Gordon.

The year before, a previous boyfriend noted that, while friendly with her father, Marten seemed more distant with her mother.

‘Apart from her dad, she didn’t talk about her family with any sparkle in her eye,’ Francis Abolo told the MoS of their time together in 2015.

When he dug deeper, she hinted that those problems related to a time when, aged 18, her mother took her to Nigeria to spend time at the Synagogue Church of all Nations, known as SCOAN.

‘She was crying a lot,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t an easy conversation.

‘She got so upset that I didn’t want to start pressing her on the details but I figured that was the reason why she wasn’t really talking to her mum.’

The family friend went further: ‘She might be angry with her father but she absolutely loathed her mother for what she did to her in the name of religion. Constance was very, very badly traumatised by the whole thing. 

Marten holding Victoria, who disappeared in order to prevent baby Victoria being taken into care as their four older children had been

Everyone talks about two Constances – the person she was before she went to Nigeria and the person who returned home.

‘She was profoundly and fundamentally changed.’

SCOAN was then ruled by a millionaire TV pastor called Temitope Balogun ‘TB’ Joshua. Along with accusations of faking ‘miracles’, psychological torture and physical abuse, a number of former female ‘disciples’ claimed Joshua, who died in 2021, repeatedly sexually assaulted and raped them.

While Mrs de Selliers, a devout Christian, returned home at the end of their visit to SCOAN, Constance stayed on for three months.

Precisely what happened while the 19-year-old was there is unclear.

But there’s no doubt it affected her deeply. Indeed, she would later say the experience left her character ‘completely broken apart’.

A spokesman for SCOAN said that the allegations against the church and TB Joshua were ‘inherently false and deeply troubling’ and that it was unaware of any association with Marten.

Mrs de Selliers has previously declined to comment on her or her daughter’s involvement with SCOAN. But those who know her say she had become concerned about her daughter during her time there and was involved in ensuring she came home.

As for what the future now holds for Marten, she has applied for permission to appeal her conviction for manslaughter.

As a source at Bronzefield added: ‘She acts like it’s a mistake she’s in there and sooner or later someone will realise and she’ll be back out.’

Given the events of the last week, however, that is something that is not going to happen any time soon.