A runaway aristocrat and her partner plotted to blame the demise of their newborn baby daughter on “cot death” after they spent weeks living rough in freezing cold conditions while trying to evade police, a court has heard.
Constance Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, 48, disappeared in December 2022 in a bid to avoid their baby being taken into care, and were sighted camping on the South Downs in -2C and carrying the infant around in a Lidl bag.
The baby – named Victoria – was later found dead by police in a disused shed, having been dumped in the carrier bag and hidden under a pile of rubbish.
Prosecutors say the couple are responsible for the baby’s death due to hypothermia, exposure to the cold weather, or difficulties from the family sleeping together while crammed into a “flimsy” tent.
When she was arrested, Marten told police they had carried the dead baby’s body around while contemplating what to do with it.
“(She) said that they had considered handing themselves in, but that she did not want to go to prison”, prosecutor Tom Little KC told an Old Bailey jury on Thursday.
“They had decided, at one point, to tell the authorities that ‘it was cot death’.”
He said that admission “indicates that the two defendants had discussed telling a contrived lie about the death to suggest that they were not responsible for the death”.
“Why do that – if there was nothing to hide? Why fail to report the death if there was nothing to hide?”, he added.
Marten, who is part of a wealthy aristocratic family from Dorset with members who have served the Royal Family, and Gordon had already had four children taken from them by authorities when she fell pregnant in early 2022, the court heard.
In December of that year, they disappeared, sparked a nationwide manhunt that culminated in late February 2023 in their arrest and the discovery of the dead baby in the Hollingbury area of Brighton.
Branded “reckless, utterly selfish, callous, cruel, and arrogant” by Mr Little, the couple are on trial for charges of manslaughter by gross negligence, perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty and causing or allowing the death of a child.
It is said they neglected the baby by going “off grid” without warm clothing or proper shelter, avoiding buying essentials like food, and travelling around England to destinations including Liverpool, Leeds, east London, and Essex in a bid to evade detection.
The exact date of the birth remains unclear, jurors heard, but placenta was found in the couple’s burnt-out car which they abandoned on the side of the M61 on January 5, 2023.
Marten said she had hoped to bury the placenta to “grow a tree from it”, telling police it is a “religious thing” and “just something we do”.
When questioned, she admitted debating how to dispose of the baby’s body, and she claimed they kept hold of it because she wanted a formal autopsy.
“I believe I fell asleep on top of her”, she said, giving an account of the death. “She didn’t make any crying or movements, and when I woke up she wasn’t alive. Then I was holding her in my jacket, that’s how I usually held her but I think I fell asleep crouching over her and she passed away.”
Gordon said he attempted CPR on the baby, and Marten told police they had considered different ways to hold a homemade funeral while on the run.
“I’ve been carrying her around not knowing what to do really”, she said. “I didn’t want to bury her in a forest, some random place, because I wanted her to have a proper burial but also because I was concerned if an animal might eat her, that would affect the autopsy.”
She added: “There’s a bottle of petroleum in the bag, because I debated whether to cremate her myself, get rid of the evidence, but I decided to keep her because I knew at some point in the future I was going to be asked about it, but I just didn’t know what to do.”
Marten and Gordon, both of no fixed address, deny all the charges against them. The trial continues.
