The death of the baby of wealthy aristocrat Constance Marten and her partner was “inevitable”, 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 had been launched after the defendants fled their burning car near Bolton, Greater Manchester, and went off-grid in a bid to avoid their fifth child being taken into care, the Old Bailey has heard.
The prosecution had alleged Victoria died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping in a “flimsy” tent, despite past warnings.
Her body was discovered with rubbish inside a shopping bag in a disused shed near Brighton after the defendants were arrested.
On Tuesday, prosecutor Tom Little KC said in his closing speech: “They exposed their baby to the cold, damp and windy conditions with wholly inadequate clothing inside that tent.”
Mr Little said “in some ways this case, despite how long it has lasted, is very simple and straight forward” and said that the baby would still be alive had they not begun camping in January 2023.
He added: “That is a cold hard fact in this case, what happens thereafter is not accidental, it all follows from their total lack of parenting skills and abilities, total lack of clothing that there was to keep the baby safe and that is why they appear before you in a dock at the Central Criminal Court.
“This case is about the duty that they owed to the baby which they plainly breached.
“They are responsible for her death, not the police, not the social services and ultimately when you stand back and you consider what she says… about where the baby was sleeping, it was simply too cold, she could not maintain her temperature and death was inevitable.”
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 aged 14.
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, of which he served 22 years.
In 2017, Gordon had pleaded guilty to assaulting two police officers who had been called to a maternity ward in Wales after Marten gave birth to one of Victoria’s older siblings, jurors have heard.
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 January 4 and February 27 2023.
Jurors have been told the defendants were convicted at an earlier trial of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.
The trial continues.
