by A wealthy lady and her partner carried their newborn baby around in a Lidl carrier bag in freezing weather while spending large sums of money taxiing across the country to evade authorities, a court has heard.
Constance Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, 49, settled “off the grid” in a tent on the South Downs after weeks on the run, leaving the girl – who they named Victoria – with warmth, shelter and food. during her short life. , jurors were told.
During the opening of the trial at the Old Bailey, prosecutor Tom Little KC told how the couple’s “reckless, completely selfish and callous” behavior – which was done to avoid the child being looked after like him four sisters – “totally avoidable”. ” the death of the little girl.
Marten, who claimed the child died after she fell asleep with her in her jacket, told police she continued to carry the body in the shopping bag after the child’s death in hopes of giving her a proper burial. The child’s remains were eventually found in a discarded pile hidden in the bag and covered with rubbish “as if she had been rejected”, the court was told.
Mr Little said: “The young girl would still – we say – be alive but for the reckless, selfish, noisy, cruel, arrogant and ultimately grossly negligent behavior of these two defendants on trial.
“They were the parents of that young girl. They put their relationship and their outlook on life before the life of a little girl.”
The court heard that the couple hid Ms Marten’s 2022 pregnancy from friends, family and healthcare professionals, before going on the run, for fear the baby would be taken from them. Jurors heard the baby was the couple’s fifth child, their other children had been taken into care before.
Describing how they ended up living out of a tent in Sussex during a high-profile police search for the family, Mr Little said: “They decided that in the middle of a cold winter and in cruel, obviously dangerous weather conditions, that they would touch. the child needed what he needed – warmth, shelter, food and finally safety.
“They basically went off the grid and lived in a tent with very little clothing, no means of keeping and staying warm and dry with little food.”
He added: “His selfish desire to keep their girl caused the harmless death of that little girl.”
The court heard how the couple spent Christmas at a holiday home in Northumberland, which he found “disgraceful”. On January 5, their Peugeot 206 was found burnt out on the M61. The officers then learned of the child’s existence after finding a placenta, wrapped in a towel, in the back of the car.
Greater Manchester police found a large number of so-called incendiary mobile phones when they searched the vehicle, which are used “if you want to limit the ability of law enforcement to track you”, the prosecutor said .
They later traveled around the country in a taxi with the infant tucked under Marten’s coat. On January 8, the couple allegedly spent £475 on a taxi from Hornsey to Newhaven in East Sussex – where they were seen heading towards the South Downs.
The court heard that at one point the parents dumped a buggy they had just bought while on the run and transferred the infant to a Lidl “life bag” where she spent much of her life before dying.
“It would have been clear to the defendants, you must think, that this was a totally inappropriate way to look after any child,” Mr Little said.
Members of Marten’s family, including her mother and brother, were in court for part of Thursday’s hearing.
Jurors were told that Marten came from a “rich family” – adding that the couple spent hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds on taxi trips around the country which could have been spent on keeping the child safe and sound.
The mother told police she fell asleep with the newborn inside her jacket – but when she woke up she was dead.
The court heard that Marten and Gordon initially refused to tell officers where their daughter was when they were arrested in Brighton on February 27, after almost eight weeks missing.
But after the remains were found, she told officers the baby – known in court as Baby A – was born at a home in Cumbria on 24 December. She believed she died on January 11, although the prosecution believes the child was seen alive as late as February 19.
Excerpts from her police interview read to the jury said: “I had her in my jacket and I haven’t slept properly for the last few days, I fell asleep with her sitting up and she, when I woke up she wasn’t there. t live When I woke up she was not alive, in my jacket.
“I believe I fell asleep on top of it. But she wasn’t crying or moving at all like that, and when I woke up she wasn’t alive. Then I was holding her in my jacket, that’s how I usually hold her but I think I fell asleep while holding her and she died.”
She told officers that she and Gordon tried to revive the child. After that, she kept the child’s body for a while in the carrier bag, later filled with soil, because she wanted to have an autopsy and a proper burial.
By the time the remains were found, pathologists were unable to determine a definitive cause of death. But a pathologist recorded a full cause of death of neglect, which could have been exposure and hypothermia or co-sleeping, the court heard.
The two deny manslaughter by gross negligence of their daughter between January 4 and February 27 last year.
They also deny charges of perverting the course of justice by concealing the body, concealing the birth of a child, cruelty to a child and allowing the death of a child.
The infant’s remains were found in a plastic bag in a locked pile at an overgrown allotment in the Hollingbury area of Brighton on March 1. The discovery came when Marten and Gordon were arrested in nearby Stanmer Township.
The trial, scheduled to last until March 8, continues.
