The parents of a baby found dead in Brighton after a police manhunt spent two months on the run, a jury was told.
Tom Little, prosecuting, set out a series of events leading to the arrest of Mark Gordon and Constance Marten in Brighton at the end of February last year.
He told the jury at the Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, in London, that the pair concealed Marten’s pregnancy and the birth of baby Victoria.
Mr Little said yesterday (Thursday 25 January) that the couple travelled across England in cars and taxis, with the newborn baby tucked underneath Marten’s coat and later kept in a Lidl bag for life.
By the time they had been found, their newborn baby had lived a brief life and died while they were on the run in freezing winter conditions.
Marten, 36, and Gordon, 49, are on trial for manslaughter by gross negligence – a charge that they deny. They face four related charges.
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Here is a timeline of events leading up to the defendants’ arrest.
Tuesday 20 December 2022
Gordon and Marten booked into a holiday cottage in Northumberland after making an online booking until Monday 26 December. The property owners found the cottage left in a “disgusting state” on Wednesday 28 December, jurors were told.
Wednesday 28 December
The defendants’ Suzuki car broke down on the M18 motorway between junctions 5 and 6. A recovery driver took them to a nearby Sainsbury’s supermarket. Gordon initially asked to be taken to Thorne, in South Yorkshire. No baby is seen or heard by the recovery driver.
Wednesday 4 January 2023
The couple moved across the Pennines and checked into the Ibis hotel at the Lymm Services, in Cheshire, in the early hours of the morning. Later the same day, they also checked into the AC Hotel in Manchester.
Thursday 5 January
A Peugeot 206 car being used by the defendants caught fire on the M61 motorway in Greater Manchester, causing them to flee. Marten’s passport, “burner” phones and a placenta wrapped in a towel were discarded in the wreckage, jurors were told.
