by Aristocrat Constance Marten was spotted browsing “skimpy” dresses in an east London shop window when she and her partner were the focus of a nationwide manhunt for their newborn baby, the Old Bailey has heard.
Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, 48, went missing in late December 2022, and police discovered they were carrying a child after finding a placenta in their burnt-out car on the side of the motorway on 5 January 2023 .
Two days later, after the couple traveled across the north of England and took a £400 taxi ride to Essex, Marten was spotted behaving “strangely” in London’s East Ham.
Graphic designer Nicola Hutton told jurors she was on a bus waiting at traffic lights when her eyes were drawn to a woman who appeared to be homeless.
“She was in front of a shop opposite Holland and Barrett. I remember he was wearing bright red dresses in the front window”, she said.
“I saw her looking into the shop window for a minute before she moved on. She considered slowly as if she was in no hurry to get anywhere.
“She would take a step forward here and there – her body language led me to believe that she had no real purpose at that time.”
Ms Hutton said she assumed the woman was homeless based on the “scruffy” way she was dressed, and believed she might be harboring a pet or a stolen item in a “bulge” in her coat.
“I remember thinking ‘Oh, there are strange people in London'”, she said, adding that she later recognized the woman as Marten after seeing a BBC News report on the missing persons case. the next day.
The court has heard that Gordon bought a buggy from Argos in East Ham and went to the chemist, while Marten, wearing a burgundy coat and red headscarf, was caught on CCTV loitering across the road.
The placenta from the baby’s birth was found in the burnt-out car on the side of the M61, making the hunt a high priority for the couple to protect the vulnerable infant.
Bags of the couple’s possessions were thrown by the side of the road as they fled the scene of the fire, traveling first to Bolton and then to Liverpool.
Jurors have heard detailed evidence of the couple’s journey, staying in pay hotels and taking taxis across the north of England, down to Essex, and then on to London.
Dale Gosling told the court on Monday that he came across the couple near the port of Harwich in Essex while walking his dog, saw them sitting on a flower planter and recognized them from news reports.
He said he heard “sad” cries from the baby Marten was carrying, and told the couple: “Excuse me, are you the people who were announced on TV as missing with a new baby?”
Mr Gosling said Gordon denied it was them, and also refused a lift to the hospital for his child to be treated.
“They said they thought they had plans. They knew what they were doing. They said they wanted to go to London to try and see family or friends.”
Valentina Burley said she saw the couple on the morning of January 7 on her way to their ParkRun meeting in Harwich Park, and heard “a baby crying loudly”.
“I wondered why they were out in the cold with a child, and I thought if they were waiting for a train they could stay inside where it was warm”, she said.
Colette Franklin drove the couple in a taxi from Harwich to Colchester, and said in her statement: “At one point, when a police car approached us on the road, the man slid down in his seat.”
Another taxi driver, Razvan Palcu, drove them from Colchester to East Ham, and recalled Gordon carrying the child in his coat.
“As we approached the end of Colchester High Street, the female said we needed to collect her husband from the Castle Pub,” he said.
“I noticed when the man went in, he took off his jacket and took out a baby from inside, and he gave it to the female.”
The couple are said to have killed the child, named Victoria, in a case of gross negligence manslaughter when she was allegedly denied access to proper food and warmth.
Marten and Gordon have been accused of camping the newborn on the freezing South Downs for more than a month in January and February 2023, in a “selfish” attempt to keep her from being taken into care.
But Gordon insists the child died on January 9 and was kept warm, dry, and well-nourished during her short life. Marten told police that she kept the child’s body while considering a funeral or home cremation, but ultimately decided she wanted an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
Marten and Gordon deny manslaughter by gross negligence, avoiding the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
