On the night of June 29, 1860 3 and 1/2 year old Francis Savile Kent was found brutally murdered. His nursemaid was first indicted for the crime, but no evidence was found to convict her. Soon after his 16 year old half-sister Constance Kent was held for questioning, but was let go. Constance was seen as something of a folk heroine and the police were criticized for accusing an accomplished, intelligent, and upper class lady for the murder. Constance later confessed to killing Francis in 1865. Constance told police she had had nothing against the boy, but had done it to get back at her step-mother. Her step-mother had been a governess in the family while Constance's mother was still alive, and had then married Constance's father shortly after his wife died. Even after she confessed many people still refused to believe she was guilty and instead believed she was covering for her father. This was the result of many people having a hard time believing that a pretty, young, high-class girl could be responsible for something so terrible. The incident, as well as the conflicting opinions about it, were widely reported in the press. The murder, along with the sensationalize of it by the press, had a big impact on Victorian society as a whole.

This entire situation helped lead to the rise of sensationalist literature in during the Victorian Era, and I think we can best see the result of this in Lady Audley's Secret. The story involves a governess who marries a man in a much higher class, and who then becomes the step-mother to a girl who does not like her. Although I would argue that Lady Audley more resembles Constance than her step-mother. The most interesting part of Constance's story is how many people refused to believe she could be capable of murder because of her higher class as well as because she was female. Lady Audley attempts to use this defense when Robert is talking to her about circumstantial evidence asking him, "How can you ask a poor little women about such things?" (107). Her status is also part of the reason her mysterious past is not as suspect as it might be in other situations. 

Perhaps another reason both Constant Kent and Lady Audley's Secret were both so sensationalized is that it shattered the idea of Victorian domesticity. Women were supposed to be docile, kind creatures who took care of the children. Constance and Lady Audley went against that ideal as women who were violent and capable of terrible things. Instead of taking care of children Constance Kent murdered her kid brother, and Lady Audley abandoned her child. Both women showed, admittedly in extremes, that the Victorian ideal of women was indeed more of an ideal than a reality.