Constance Marten tells court ‘we did everything we could to protect’ baby

Aristocrat Constance Marten has told jurors she moved from place to place with her newborn girl to prevent the baby from being taken into care, insisting she and her partner did “everything we could to protect her”.

Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, are charged with the manslaughter of their daughter Victoria, who died after they went off-grid in early 2023.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Old Bailey was told the couple were avoiding their fifth child being removed from them amid a high-profile police hunt for the missing baby, with Marten claiming her other children were “stolen by the state”.

It is alleged Victoria was inadequately clothed in a babygrow and that Marten had got wet as she carried the baby underneath her coat.

The prosecution alleges Victoria died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping in the “flimsy” tent on the South Downs, despite past warnings.

The child’s body was discovered with rubbish inside a shopping bag in a disused shed near Brighton after the defendants were arrested on February 27 2023.

There had been a delay to Marten starting her evidence after she complained of suffering from a headache and toothache on Tuesday, but she began her evidence-in-chief on Thursday morning.

Sitting in the witness box wearing a blue blouse and navy blazer, Marten told the court that she “absolutely” loved Victoria.

Asked if she did anything to cause her harm, the defendant said: “Absolutely not, we did everything we could to protect her.”

Questioned on how she felt about her death now, Marten told jurors: “I don’t think this process has really allowed me to grieve properly.

“I still feel angry, upset, still in shock.”

She said Victoria was born on Christmas Eve 2022 and died January 9 the next year.

The court heard how Marten and Gordon “stayed all around the country” in various hotels and properties in the months leading up to Victoria’s birth.

Marten explained they moved between places “because I didn’t want one single authority to have jurisdiction over my daughter, so if we kept moving, they couldn’t take her”.

“I knew that my family would be looking and they would have people that they were paying to follow us,” she added.

Jurors heard the defendants checked into a cottage in Northumberland between December 20 and 26, where she gave birth.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Marten said she had an “easy” pregnancy and delivery with no complications, adding that she would have taken the baby to hospital “straight away” had there been any issues.

Detailing their plan after checking out of the cottage on Boxing Day, Marten said: “Continue to move jurisdictions every three or four days, rent a place in cash and live there as long as I can with Victoria.”

Asked about the concerns they had about moving around with a newborn, she told the court: “Obviously it would have been nicer to have been somewhere stable and been able to properly relax and enjoy ourselves with her as a family but we weren’t in that position so we had to do what we had to do really.

“Because I knew that the local authorities were after her and I knew that there were private investigators investigating us.”