Constance Marten: I carried baby’s body in a bag

Constance Marten and partner Mark Gordon deny manslaughter by gross negligence and causing or allowing the death of a child. Ms Marten, 36, said Victoria died while she was sleeping and that she felt responsible for falling asleep on her daughter, “if that is what happened. Ms Marten told the court that Victoria died on 9 January last year. She said she kept her child’s body with her except on rare occasions.

The couple went on the run because they wanted to keep Victoria, after four other children were taken into care. Greater Manchester Police had launched a nationwide search. The couple moved between various locations with Victoria’s body during their attempts to evade police. Ms Marten said she had once thought she had been recognised at Newhaven railway station.

She described how the couple stopped going shopping for fear of being caught and started rifling through bins at Hollingbury Golf Club. Ms Marten said she felt responsible for falling asleep on her daughter. She said: “If we kept going much longer, sharing one piece of bread out of the bin, it wasn’t sustainable. I had four kids.

I know how to look after children. Ms Marten’s family hired private detectives to find her and her son, she told the court. I had to escape my family because they are extremely aggressive and bigoted and they wouldn’t allow me to have a child with my husband, she said. The defendants, of no fixed address, deny manslaughter by gross negligence, perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child and child cruelty.

One juror has left proceedings because they had a holiday booked. The trial continues. My family would do anything to erase the child from the family line.

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