The following is a comment piece from campaign group Support Not Separation
We are outraged that Constance Marten is to face a re-trial.
The jury in her first trial was discharged because, after a six-month trial and 72 hours of deliberation, they could not reach an agreement on some of the charges [nb. she was found guilty of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice].
Ms Marten is not a danger to the public, she is a mother who deserves to be allowed to begin to recover from what she has suffered: her children removed, the death of her baby, and the long time she has spent in prison, cut off from those who love and support her.
Constance Marten
Constance Marten and her husband went on the run with new-born Victoria after their four previous children had been forcibly taken by social services and put up for adoption. When baby Victoria tragically died, her parents were charged with causing or allowing the death of a child and manslaughter by gross negligence.
We have been outside the Old Bailey on several occasions during the trial (including today) and also attended court to show our support for Ms Marten. As mothers, many of us have experienced the brutality of the family courts which steal our children and we recognise the enormous trauma Ms Marten has been through.
Ms Marten was repeatedly told in court that she could not re-visit the family court cases involving her four older children, yet this context was fundamental to why she went on the run to protect Victoria from being taken at birth.
Our experience, backed by research, shows that once social services have removed one child, they expect to remove every subsequent child. Predictably, Ms Marten’s third and fourth children were taken at birth.
What the public doesn’t know
Who wouldn’t go on the run to protect their baby with whom they have bonded after nine months in the womb? As a grieving mother, Constance Marten needed support NOT prosecution. Charges should never have been brought and should not be brought again.
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. Ms Marten reflected the experience of many mothers when she spoke in court about going to social services for help:
That was probably the worst decision… having gone through the system of social services I don’t believe they are there to help parents, or children for that matter.
The public doesn’t know about the lifelong trauma inflicted by wrenching children from their family, first of all on the children, and 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.
Mothers like Constance Marten need support
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 professionals who think they know best. It seems Constance Marten’s case was interlaced with many of those.
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”. No wonder councils are going bankrupt while many mothers whose children are removed are driven to suicide.
The trial of Constance Marten 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.
Featured image via Facebook
