Growing up in a grand 25-room Dorset estate surrounded by 400 acres of parkland, Constance Marten experienced a childhood far removed from the lives of her fellow inmates at HMP Bronzefield.

Now known as Prisoner A9624X within the prison’s confines, Constance still carries an air of aristocratic privilege as she awaits sentencing for the manslaughter of her newborn daughter.

‘She complains as much as any other inmate I’ve seen in my career,’ a prison source said, ‘and she’s got it a lot easier than most prisoners. 

‘She behaves as if she is above the prison and everyone in it, maintaining it’s just a matter of time before someone realizes the mistake and her release follows.’

Her complaints include grievances typical of a Lady of the Manor scolding her household: the prison food is dreadful (she once shared with Tatler magazine her dislike for excessive dill on fish), the company appalling, and participation in social or educational activities with other inmates is regarded as intolerable.

Last month, Marten, 38, along with her violent partner Mark Gordon, 51, was convicted for causing the death of their newborn, Victoria, after fleeing in icy Northumberland at the end of December 2022 to evade social services, who had taken their four other children into custody.

They had lived off-grid for 56 days, hiding out in tents on rough ground in sub-zero weather and sparking a nationwide hunt for them.

After their arrest, Victoria’s decomposed body was found in a shopping bag beside a half-eaten sandwich in an allotment shed in Brighton on March 1.

Yet it seems Marten has an issue with the way contact with her surviving four children – mercifully safe in foster care – is strictly managed by prison authorities. 

A source revealed how, following several complaints, her prison profile was recently updated, meaning she is permitted to send each child one letter or card a year from Bronzefield, in Surrey.

She has complained that this isn’t sufficient as it would force her to choose between sending a Christmas or a birthday card to each child.

‘It’s a hard one for staff to wrap their heads round,’ the source said. ‘We know why she is in here and we know she’s proven herself to be a danger to her children, so it seems strange she is so desperate to contact them and present herself as a decent mother.

‘But maybe it just boils down to control and entitlement – when she’s told she’s not allowed to do something she makes a huge fuss until she can.’

Marten and Gordon, who is on remand at Category A Belmarsh men’s prison in south-east London, are expected to be sentenced next month for manslaughter by gross negligence, concealing the birth of a child, perverting the course of justice by not reporting her death, and child cruelty.

Marten awaits her fate on Wing 4 at the 527-inmate women’s prison, a mile south of Heathrow airport.

She is not the only high profile woman in the block convicted of causing the death of a child: sharing the unit is neo-natal nurse Lucy Letby, jailed for murdering seven babies and attempting to kill seven more, and Beinash Batool, serving a 33-year sentence for the murder of her ten-year-old stepdaughter Sara Sharif.

While Letby and Batool have formed an uneasy alliance, and have been spotted playing cards together, Marten has so far chosen not to socialise with either of them. But she would do well to consider joining their macabre sisterhood, the prison source said.

‘Marten comes out in the same group as those two, not through her own choice but because they’ve all been convicted of hurting children so they cannot safely mix with most other prisoners.

‘But it would probably be a good idea for her to mix with Letby and Batool for her own sake. Most other prisoners wouldn’t give her the time of day knowing what she’s in for, so those two are as good as she will ever do in terms of friendships made on the inside.

‘As far as some inmates will see it, Constance is a baby killer. So while she is inside she is naturally going to be a target for others.’

The Daily Mail revealed last month how Letby, 35, is seen as a model prisoner who is polite to staff, keeps an immaculate cell at all times and is dressed and ready before the 8am wake-up call. 

Thanks to her good behaviour she has retained enhanced status and a coveted cleaning job which affords her more time out of her cell and extra cash to spend on treats from the canteen, phone credit and toiletries – £33 a week compared to the standard £19.80.

Marten’s approach to prison life is different. ‘Most prisoners are crying out for jobs,’ a source said, ‘but Constance shows no interest. It’s like she thinks it’s beneath her and she’s just passing through so there’s not much point engaging.

‘The same thing goes for enhanced status, which is something that prisoners on Unit 4 are encouraged to work towards. She’s not bothered.

‘Her behaviour isn’t what you might call abusive, she just moans constantly and seems to have no interest in making her time as easy as possible.’

Marten’s refusal to engage with prison life tallies with her antics during two trials fraught with delays often caused by her and Gordon, who burned through a total of 19 lawyers.

One Family Court judge who oversaw child custody proceedings said the couple viewed external agencies as hostile forces determined to do them harm. ‘The strong impression given is that of two people who are fiercely united in an unrelenting struggle against a non-existent opponent,’ the judgement read.

As a ‘standard’ prisoner, Marten has a TV and DVD player in her cell, which she can use to watch a selection of approved titles from the prison library. But her unwillingness to engage fully with staff or put in the effort expected of a model inmate has been obvious from the outset.

The heiress, whose father Napier was, as a child, a page to the late Queen, made her horror at the prison’s cuisine abundantly clear.

‘She complains constantly about the food,’ a source said. ‘It’s almost as if she’s in a restaurant and is surprised about how poor the standards are. It’s like she doesn’t seem to understand where she is, that this is a prison.

‘She does have a point though – the prison food is horrible. But then, it’s not supposed to be anything more than healthy and calorific. We have roughly £2.70 per day to feed a prisoner three meals with taxpayers’ money.

‘On paper, the menu looks OK, with dishes like lasagne, chilli and burgers. But the burgers are cheap patties that are only ever cooked on one side, and the Thai curry is like runny dishwater.

‘It should be another incentive for her to target enhanced status so she has more cash to spend on other food, but she doesn’t get it.’ 

Marten’s reputation as an entitled, inveterate complainer is long established. During the second of her two chaotic trials, which cost a total of £10million, Marten used an interview with The View magazine for female prisoners to moan about the ‘disgusting’ microwaved food served to prisoners at the Old Bailey.

She also complained about the journey to the central London court while accompanied by guards ‘on minimum wages’.

‘Marten was a complete nightmare during her trial. Getting her up in the mornings was the worst,’ a prison source said.

Because of logistical challenges in getting remand prisoners ready for the two-hour drive to the Old Bailey, during her trial Marten’s day would begin with a 5.15am wake-up – not acceptable to someone of her standing, it would seem.

‘It was necessary, of course, or there’s no way she’d have been ready in time. But she got it into her head that the officers had it in for her and resented them for getting her up,’ the source said.

Following her wake-up call, Marten would have 20 minutes to get ready in her cell before being escorted to reception to fetch her court clothes from a property box and get dressed.

She would be given a breakfast pack including a cereal box with a carton of long life milk, a breakfast bar and some coffee.

‘She might sometimes be stuck in reception for an hour or so while other prisoners heading to court were rounded up and brought down, and she was never happy waiting,’ the source said.

Before going to court, Marten would have to sit in a ‘BOSS chair’, otherwise known as a Body Orifice Security Scanner, a non-intrusive method of detecting objects concealed in body cavities.

‘All this was normal protocol but she would complain each morning without fail about her treatment and what an inconvenience everything was,’ the source added.

On multiple occasions Marten refused to attend court following a furious row with prison staff.

Following one argument, a note sent to the judge explaining her absence described her as ‘very argumentative and abusive’.

‘The morning routine isn’t pleasant but you’re in prison heading to a trial because your actions resulted in the death of your baby,’ the source said.

‘She is by no means the most vicious inmate we have dealt with but it’s difficult to have too much sympathy. Plenty of other inmates do it for lengthy trials and they are as good as gold.’

At one point during the trial, Marten’s behaviour bordered on the farcical, when she sent a bizarre note to the judge begging to be allowed to ‘nip out for coffee as we’re falling asleep’, as if she were attending a tiresome social event.

The request was denied by His Honour Judge Mark Lucraft KC.

In prison, ‘nipping out for a coffee’ is not straightforward either but seen as a privilege that must be earned through good behaviour.

A Bronzefield canteen list reveals Marten can choose between a Lyons instant coffee for £1.70, a Costa Coffee chocolate frappe for £1.45 or a 150g pot of Kenco granules for £7.

She can also buy a packet of Hobnobs for £1.59, Bourbon creams for 80p or Custard Creams for 90p, all of which must come out of her £19.80 weekly budget.

Marten also has access to workshops and courses in her unit, such as catering, science and beauty, but her attendance is ‘sporadic’.

Ahead of their sentencing next month, a source said: ‘Staff are a bit nervous about what she’s going to be like afterwards.

‘She is only expecting a couple of years maximum because she still believes what she was doing with her baby made sense. She thinks she’s just passing through here.

‘We reckon she’s in for a rude awakening.’