Sex offenders could return to prison over failure to report pregnancy, safeguarding review recommends

Sex offenders could be recalled to prison if they fail to report a pregnancy in their relationship, under changes recommended by a national safeguarding review.

The review followed the high-profile case of baby Victoria, who died at the hands of her mother Constance Marten and her father Mark Gordon.

Marten, 38, and her convicted rapist partner Gordon, 51, went on the run with their daughter to get away from social services after their four other children were taken into care.

Victoria's body was later found inside a shopping bag.

Marten and Gordon have been jailed for a total of 28 years after they were convicted of killing their baby.

Read more:
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The review, published by the national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel, said the baby girl's birth "was the last within her family of a rapid series of pregnancies, births, and removals into care that by the time she was conceived had become a repeating pattern with devastating consequences".

It said that, given the family history, professionals around them "needed to contemplate the prospect of Victoria being conceived and born well in advance, to have a better chance of engaging more productively with her parents".

In 1989, British national Gordon was jailed in the US for raping a woman in Florida when he was 14.

The review said when he was deported back to the UK, he was not required to share details about new partners or pregnancy.

At least three of the pregnancies during his relationship with Marten were concealed or disclosed late, which the review said limited "safeguarding opportunities".

'I was given ultimatums'

Asked by the review how contact with child safeguarding agencies made her feel, Marten said: "I was given ultimatums, rather than true assistance.

"It felt like they were using the powers of the state coercively rather than constructively.

"It felt, in a way, that there was a flow chart which would ultimately result in the removal of my children, step by step.

"My mistrust of social services is not an innate feature of my personality, it developed due to my dealings with them."

'Hard to hear'

The report called for better support for parents of children who are taken into care to prevent harm to any babies they might have in the future.

Panel chairman Sir David Holmes said while it might be "hard to hear and harder still to action", a lesson from the case is that a focus must be kept on support for parents in cases of child removal "however hard to understand they may be".

The review noted the couple's "persistent reluctance to engage" with authorities, having moved five times during their five pregnancies between 2017 and 2023, "with each move coinciding with escalating safeguarding concerns".

(c) Sky News 2026: Sex offenders could return to prison over failure to report pregnancy, safeguarding revie