Mark Gordon in the past convicted of rape in US, Old Bailey retrial advised

Mark Gordon was once convicted of a sequence of sexual offences, together with rape, which happened in Florida in 1989 when he was once elderly 14, a jury heard on Thursday.

The main points of his earlier convictions have been learn to the jury at a retrial of separate fees on the Old Bailey in London.

Gordon and his spouse Constance Marten are status trial on fees of the manslaughter through gross negligence in their new child child Victoria and of inflicting or permitting the loss of life of a kid. They each deny the fees.

Victoria’s decomposing frame was once present in a buying groceries bag in a shed in a Brighton allotment in March 2023.

The jury have been advised of the main points of Gordon’s prior offences within the United States.

On 29 April 1989, he broke into the home of a subsequent door neighbour dressed in a nylon stocking over his face, armed with a knife and hedge clippers, the court docket heard.

He demanded that the girl within the home undress and tried to rape her, sooner than orally raping her and committing different sexual attacks.

Gordon then held her for four-and-a-half hours in opposition to her will.

On 21 May of the similar yr, he broke into some other assets sporting a flat-headed shovel and beat a male occupant concerning the head with the shovel.

He was once sentenced in the USA to 40 years in jail, of which he served 22 years.

In inquiries to Det Sgt Ian Valentine, who was once giving proof concerning the convictions, Mark Gordon, who’s now representing himself, urged that he were “manipulated” in his police interviews in Florida, pronouncing he were a 14-year-old kid with out grownup supervision.

Det Sgt Valentine mentioned: “I am not aware of the circumstances of the case. I am just aware of the outcome.”

The jury additionally heard that on 3 events Marten’s circle of relatives commissioned personal investigators to habits surveillance at the couple.

An organization referred to as LSG was once employed through Marten’s mom, Virginie de Selliers, in 2016 to track her daughter. LSG was once a success and controlled to take some footage of the couple.

LSG was once then employed through Marten’s father, Napier Marten, to engineer a gathering in a café.

Mrs de Selliers employed a 2d corporate, Blackstone Consultancy, in 2021 to research the couple’s “pattern of life”. The ensuing investigation, dubbed “Operation Lynx”, lasted two months, and extra pictures have been taken.

The retrial will proceed on Monday.