Aristocrat Constance Marten claimed her children were “stolen by the state” as she began giving evidence in her Old Bailey baby manslaughter trial.
Marten, 37, and her partner Mark Gordon, 50, are accused of the manslaughter of their fifth child, Victoria, when they went on the run from authorities in late December 2022.
The baby was found dead at the end of a two-month national manhunt - her body left in a Lidl bag for life, concealed under rubbish, and abandoned in a disused shed on the outskirt of Brighton.
The couple are accused of causing Victoria’s death by gross negligence as they moved between hotels, took taxi rides around the country, and ultimately decided to sleep on the wintery South Downs in a tent.
Marten and Gordon say they went “off grid” after Victoria was born to stop her being taken into care, in the same way that their other four children had been taken away.
Marten, beginning her evidence to the manslaughter trial, branded her family “bigoted”, said they never accepted her relationship with Gordon, and claimed they “were the ones who instigated my children being taken away”.
Talking of the adoption of her first two children, she said: “I love them extremely. Not being with them is very very hard.”
She said: “They are never allowed to know about me unless the adoptive parents tell them. Their names are changed, I am not allowed to speak to them.
“I think it’s an absolute outrage. They are never caused harm, they have always been loved and well-catered for, so the decision was an outrage.”
Marten then said “when my children were stolen by the state…”, but her statement was interrupted by Judge Mark Lucraft KC, the Recorder of London, who said he needed to “caution you against answering in the way you have just done, as there are consequences that may follow if you do.”
Asked if she loved baby Victoria, Marten replied “absolutely”, and she denied doing anything to harm her child: “We did everything we could to protect her.”
Referring to the prosecution and trials, Marten went on to say: “I don’t think this process has really allowed me to grieve properly.
“I still feel angry, upset, still an element of shock.”
Jurors heard Marten – who had the childhood nickname Toots - hails from a wealthy family, she was privately educated, and went on to study Arabic and Middle Eastern history at the University of Leeds, graduating in 2012.
She told the court of travels to India, Nepal, central America, and Egypt, jobs at news organisation Al Jazeera as well as in a coffee shop and as a nanny, and months spent in Peru with Gordon after they first met.
“I love him very much”, she said. “I wouldn’t have five children with him, live with him, be with him, if I didn’t. He is very dear to me.”
Marten said she became estranged from her own family after they were “cold” and “unfriendly” towards him, before adding: “I always had a frosty relationship with my family - they can be quite bigoted and I don’t really want to be a part of it.”
Marten said after their first two children were taken away, they decided to have a third and planned to move counties every three or four days in a bid to stop social services from intervening again.
Marten said she is in favour of modern medicine, but disagrees with vaccinations, especially in young children.
“In young babies, I’ve done my research”, she said. “I think the immune system is developing. You are born with a certain amount of positive bacteria. Vaccinations are done too young.
“I don’t really like vaccinations.”
Marten said she dreamed of a big family – seven children and living on a farm.
When she was expecting baby Victoria in late December 2022, they went to stay in a rented cottage in Northumberland and she said her daughter was born on Christmas Eve in one of the upstairs bedrooms.
She told jurors they moved on to another rented property, but on finding it was going to be a house-share with strangers they headed to a Premier Inn instead.
Marten told jurors her family had hired private investigators to tail them, and she did not want her relatives to discover that she had given birth to another child.
Facing a jury question about whether she reported the attention of private investigators to police, Marten replied: “The police are not going to help. Mark and I have had issues.
“A lot of Private Investigators are former police and pretty much former police. I didn’t think they were going to help.”
She went on to claim that several of their cars had been tampered with in the past, causing them to break down.
The court has heard how Marten and Gordon’s car broke down on the motorway in the early days of them going on the run.
Marten said she had paid for a hotel with a credit card the night before that incident, and she was left “a bit scared” by the connection she drew.
“I felt this had happened purposefully”, she said. “So I wanted to lose the trail of people following us.
“I paid with a credit card in the hotel the night before the car shut down. It’s happened so many times to our cars, the same thing – it blacks out on the motorway, stopping working.
“I’m pretty convinced there are a few people behind it.”
A second car the couple were in caught fire on the side of the M61 on January 5, 2023, forcing them to abandon many of their possessions and leave behind a placenta wrapped in a towel.
Marten said they fled when they realised the fire brigade were coming to the scene, fearing this would lead to Victoria being taken away from them.
As a nationwide manhunt was launched, amid fears for the safety of the baby, Marten and Gordon moved around England on taxis, they were sighted in east London, and eventually ended up on January 8 in Newhaven.
Marten said they also had their pet cat with them, and she said Victoria - who she was breast-feeding - was a “very easy baby”.
“She was well fed. She slept a lot. She was very content”, she said.
Prosecutors say the couple neglected their baby by heading out to camp on the South Downs in a “flimsy” tent, despite driving raining and plunging temperatures.
Marten told the jury her baby died in her arms on January 9.
The couple were convicted at a first trial of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice. They deny charges of manslaughter and causing or allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
