Wealthy aristocrat Constance Marten and her convicted rapist partner “sought to mask the reality” to the jury and were “picking and choosing what questions to answer”, a prosecutor has said.
Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 50, are charged with the manslaughter of their baby daughter Victoria, who died in a tent on the South Downs in early 2023.
A high-profile manhunt was under way after the defendants fled their burning car near Bolton, Greater Manchester, a jury was told at the Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, in London.
Tom Little, prosecuting, said that the pair went off-grid to try to avoid having their fifth child taken into care, the Old Bailey has heard.
Mr Little said that baby Victoria died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping in a “flimsy” tent, despite previous warnings given to the couple.
Her body was found with rubbish inside a Lidl “bag for life” in a disused allotment shed in Hollingdean after the defendants were arrested.
Today (Monday 2 June), Mr Little said: “The one thing that these two defendants have not done is have their account tested, have they?
“They’ve acted as a team, refused to have their accounts tested and probed.”
Baby Victoria “never stood a chance”, he added.
Mr Little told the jury that the defendants had “sought to mask the reality to you” and were “picking and choosing what questions to answer”.
“In short, hoping, we would suggest, to trick you,” he said.
Of Marten, Mr Little said; “Lies fall from her mouth, we suggest, and have always done, like confetti floating in the wind.”
He said that baby Victoria “would still be alive if the defendants had not gone on to the South Downs”.
He added: “Had these two defendants stayed at the side of the M61… the baby would still be alive.”
Mr Little said: “This case is about very serious failings to look after a baby. This case is about significant risks.”
Last week, jurors were told that Gordon had been convicted of raping a woman in Florida while armed with a knife and hedge clippers in 1989 when he was 14 years old.
Within a month, he entered another property and carried out another offence involving “aggravated battery”, the court was told.
In February 1994, Gordon received a sentence of 40 years’ imprisonment. He served 22 years.
In 2017, Gordon pleaded guilty to assaulting two police officers who had been called to a maternity ward in Wales after Marten gave birth to one of baby Victoria’s older siblings, jurors were told.
Gordon had to be forcibly restrained during the incident and a new father had stepped in to help the two female officers before more police arrived to arrest him.
Marten and Gordon, of no fixed address, have denied the gross negligence manslaughter of their daughter and causing or allowing her death between Wednesday 4 January and Monday 27 February 2023.
Jurors have been told that the defendants were convicted at an earlier trial of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.
The trial continues.
