| We will be outside the Old Bailey on Monday 15 September 2025 and inside court 8 at 10.30am to support Constance Marten who is being sentenced for gross negligence manslaughter (and other lesser charges) after her baby daughter died. These verdicts are a gross miscarriage of justice: the jury was not allowed to know about the injustices Ms Marten faced when her children were removed by the family court. Ms Marten and her husband have been on trial twice, in prison over two and a half years, and are already serving a life sentence of grief and loss after the adoption of their four children and the tragic death of baby Victoria. We urge the judge to show compassion and release them from prison. We’re devastated that the jury did not recognise the enormous trauma Ms Marten has been through, of having four children forcibly taken by the state. They have found her guilty of causing the death of her much-loved baby, Victoria. As a grieving and already traumatised mother, Ms Marten needed support NOT prosecution and should not be in prison any longer. Ms Marten was repeatedly told in court that she could not re-visit the family court decisions to remove her four older children, yet this was central to her decision to go on the run to protect Victoria from being taken from her parents at birth. Our experience, backed by research, shows that once social services have removed one child, they expect to remove every subsequent child. Predictably, after her first two children were taken, Ms Marten’s third and fourth children were taken at birth. In this context, who wouldn’t go on the run to protect their baby with whom they have already bonded after nine months in the womb? The public doesn’t know that thousands of mothers have our children unjustly removed every year just like her. Over 83,000 children are currently in “care” and many are forcibly adopted each year – 90% of adoptions are without the consent of the natural parents. The public doesn’t know about the lifelong trauma inflicted by wrenching children from their family, first of all on the children, but also on their mothers. Mothers are the first protectors, and children without a mother are vulnerable to every abuse especially those in state “care”. The public doesn’t know that mothers in the family court are judged “on the balance of probability”, a much lower threshold than the evidence “beyond reasonable doubt” in criminal courts. This, and the secrecy surrounding family courts allows them to remove children without any public accountability. Mothers face sexism, racism, class and disability discrimination at the hands of unaccountable professionals who think they know best. The public doesn’t know that while local authorities deny mothers the support we are entitled to, they feed a profiteering privatised child removal industry that charges as much as £50,000 a week (£2.6m a year) for one child in “care”.[1] No wonder councils are going bankrupt while many mothers whose children are removed are living in poverty. The public doesn’t know that mothers are driven to suicide by uncaring local authorities more interested in taking children than providing support. A new report condemns the harsh judgements mothers face. The public doesn’t know how many children die and/or suffer violence while in the “care” of the State: shockingly, 450 children in “care” died between 2011-2021 and in one year alone there were almost 3,000 reports of abuse by foster carers. Research found that 4.52% of Black children, and 4.22% of mixed heritage children experienced institutional care by age 9 – compared to 1.64% of white children. It is also well documented that children of colour face racism and abuse throughout the “care” system. The trials of Constance Marten have highlighted the desperation she and many mothers feel and our determination to protect our children. Separating children from loving mothers is child abuse. As mothers, our hearts go out to her. Stop stealing our children! Stop criminalising us for fighting to protect them! |
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/18/english-councils-pay-1m-per-child-for-places-in-private-childrens-homes
Support Not Separation 