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 with their new-born baby, the Old Bailey has heard.
Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, 48, went missing in late December 2022, and police realised they were carrying a baby after the discovery of a placenta in their burnt-out car on the side of a motorway on January 5, 2023.
Two days later, after the couple had travelled across northern England and taken a £400 taxi ride to Essex, Marten was spotted behaving “strangely” in East Ham in London.
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 it had bright red skimpy dresses in the front window”, she said.
“I saw her look into the shop window for about a minute before she moved on. She slowly ambled as if not in a hurry to get anywhere.
“She would take a step forward here and there – her body language led me to believe she didn’t have any real purpose at that point in time.”
Ms Hutton said she assumed the woman was homeless based on the “scruffy” way she was dressed, and believed she may have been harbouring a pet or a stolen item in a “bulge” in her coat.
“I remember thinking ‘oh, there are some odd people in London’”, she said, and added that she later recognised the woman as Marten after seeing a BBC News report on the missing persons case the following day.
The court has heard 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 birth of the baby had been found in the burnt-out car on the side of the M61, making the hunt for the couple a high-priority to protect the vulnerable infant.
Bags of the couple’s possessions had been discarded at the side of the road as they fled the scene of the fire, travelling first to Bolton and then on to Liverpool.
Jurors have heard detailed evidence of the couple's journey, as they stayed in hotels paying cash and took taxis across the north of England, down to Essex, and then onwards to London.
Dale Gosling told the court on Monday that he encountered the couple near Harwich port in Essex as he walked his dog, seeing them sat on a flower planter and recognising them from news reports.
He said he heard a “distressed” cry from the baby Marten was carrying, and he said to the couple: “Excuse me, are you the people who are on the television advertised as missing with a new baby?”
Mr Gosling said Gordon denied it was them, and he also turned down a lift to the hospital for their baby to be treated.
“They said they thought they had plans. They knew what they were doing. They said they were trying to go to London to try to see family or friends.”
Valentina Burley said she saw the couple on the morning of January 7 as she headed for her ParkRun meet in Harwich Park, and heard “a baby crying loudly”.
“I wondered why they were outside in the cold with a baby, and thought if they were waiting for a train they could wait inside where it was warm”, she said.
Colette Franklin drove the couple by taxi from Harwich to Colchester, and said in her statement: “At one point, when a police car came towards us on the road, the male slipped down in his seat.”
Another taxi driver, Razvan Palcu, drove them from Colchester to East Ham, and recalled Gordon carrying the baby in his coat.
“As we got to the end of Colchester high street, the female said we needed to pick up her husband from the Castle Pub," he said.
“I noticed when the male got in, he unzipped his jacket and took a baby out from inside, and gave it to the female.”
It is said the couple killed the baby, named Victoria, in a case of manslaughter by gross negligence by allegedly denying her access to proper food and warmth.
Marten and Gordon are accused of taking the new-born camping on the freezing cold South Downs for more than a month in January and February 2023, in a “selfish” bid to avoid her being taken into care.
But Gordon insists the baby died on January 9 and was kept warm, dry, and well fed during her short life. Marten told police she kept the baby’s body as she contemplated a homemade funeral or cremation, but ultimately decided she wanted an autopsy to determine the cause of death.
Marten and Gordon deny 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.
The trial continues.
