A mother whose baby died after she and the child’s father went off grid to stop authorities taking their daughter from them has told a jury she feels responsible.
Giving evidence in her trial for the gross negligence manslaughter of baby Victoria, Constance Marten said she had regrets over the way she had cared for the child, but said she was put in an impossible position by social services.
“She was our pride and joy. I had four kids. I know how to look after children. Our primary concern was Victoria,” Marten told jurors. “I do feel responsible for falling asleep on her if that’s what happened. I’m not sure, because the autopsy was inconclusive, but I do feel responsible for her.”
The court has heard that Marten and the baby’s father, Mark Gordon, went on the run around the time of Victoria’s birth to evade social services, after their four other children were taken into care. The jury heard that the couple feared their fifth child would also be taken from them.
They moved around the country and eventually spent several weeks in a tent in wintry conditions on the South Downs last year, during which time Victoria died.
Cross-examining Marten on Friday, the prosecutor, Joel Smith, repeatedly asked if she accepted that putting a newborn in such conditions was a “very bad idea”. Marten told the jury: “Obviously, being in a house would be better than being in a tent.”
Smith said: “Can you see that bringing your newborn child into a tent in the middle of winter with no heating and hot water, can you see that was a very bad decision?” Marten replied: “You are looking at it from a very western perspective. There are kids who live in igloos. It was the only decision I had at the time. She was well cared for and well loved.”
Asked if she regretted the decision now, she said: “I regret falling asleep in the way I did.”
Smith asserted that Marten went off grid with her baby because she thought social services were wrong. He asked her: “Has it occurred to you that they were right?” Marten replied: “Victoria would be alive if it were not for them. I’m not saying they are to blame for her death. I’m saying we were in a very unfortunate position.”
Asked by her defence barrister, Francis FitzGibbon KC, how she thought the whole episode would end, Marten said: “I don’t think I was really thinking, to be honest. We were in a heightened state of grief and fear. I kept toying with handing myself in.”
The defendants, of no fixed address, 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.
