A new safeguarding review has reignited debate over whether the death of baby Victoria, killed by her parents Constance Marten and Mark Gordon, could have been prevented had police handled their manhunt differently. Discussing findings from the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel's report, crime reporter David James Smith argued on the Daily Mail's Trial podcast that the high-profile, public pursuit of the couple in early 2023 may have driven them further off-grid, contributing to a "terrible inevitability" that ended in the newborn's death from suspected hypothermia.

Marten and Gordon, who lived a nomadic lifestyle and had already had four children removed by family courts, went on the run after Victoria's birth, fearing she too would be taken into care. Police launched a nationwide manhunt after finding a placenta in their abandoned car, and the couple evaded capture for weeks by living outdoors through winter on the South Downs before Victoria's body was found in a shopping bag near Brighton on 1 March 2023. Following a trial and retrial at the Old Bailey, both were jailed for fourteen years for gross negligence manslaughter in September 2025, with Gordon receiving a further four years due to the risk he posed to the public; the new review, titled "Protecting All Vulnerable Babies Better", examined systemic safeguarding failures and the family's long pattern of non-engagement with authorities.