Constance Marten: ‘I did nothing but show baby love’

Constance Marten, 36, and partner Mark Gordon, 49, both deny the manslaughter by gross negligence of their daughter Victoria. Her body was found in a Lidl bag in a shed in Brighton on 1 March. Ms Marten and Mr Gordon had allegedly been living in a tent in wintry conditions. Ms Marten wept in the witness box as she gave evidence in her defence.

She insisted that she and Mr Gordon loved their children “more than anything in the world and were concerned about future access to their other four children. She described being in shock and despair after discovering her daughter had died. Ms Marten told jurors she did not expose her baby to cold or allow her to get too hot so far as she was aware. She said: “Obviously it would be preferable to be in a house, that’s just common sense, but (at) no point did I think she was at danger… our whole reason for being in the tent was for Victoria… she was very well protected and looked after.

Ms Marten said she woke her partner and they tried to resuscitate Victoria but could not. She said: “I immediately panicked”, Ms Marten told the court. I woke my partner and I said: ‘I think Victoria is dead. I think she’s dead’ Couple went on the run because they wanted to keep their daughter, after four other children were taken into care.

Police launched a nationwide search after a placenta was found in the couple’s burnt-out car by the motorway near Bolton, Greater Manchester. The baby’s body was found in a Lidl bag inside a tent in Brighton. The baby had been sleeping in the tent with her mother. The mother had been warned about the risks of sleeping in a tent with a baby.

The court heard that the baby was in good health when she died. Ms Marten said she did not remember the day being particularly cold. She said it did not occur to her to seek help because everything was fine with Victoria. Mr FitzGibbon asked her why she and Mr Gordon left the scene of the car fire days earlier.

She replied: “Because I knew that if the fire brigade came then the police would… I was just thinking about keeping Victoria with us and saving her so we just fled straight away. She added that she thought they had enough to keep Victoria warm. If I thought for one second the cold would affect… then we wouldn’t be staying in that position. 34: She said she thought she and her family would be fine.

Ms Marten said she and Mr Gordon met in a shop selling incense in 2014. They got married in Peru two years later in a ceremony not legally binding in the UK. When pregnant with her first child in 2017, she said she was trying to flee her family who had hired a private detective. 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. Ms Marten told the jury that when her first child was born, her family trust fund was giving her £50 a week, but after she wrote a “stern”” email, this was increased to £1,700 a month.

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