The partner of wealthy aristocrat Constance Marten has described the prosecution case against them in the trial over the death of their newborn baby as “like a script from a movie”.
Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, are accused of the manslaughter by gross negligence of their baby daughter Victoria, who died in a tent on the South Downs in early 2023.
A jury at the Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, in London, has been told that the couple went off grid after their fifth child was born.
They were desperate to avoid having her taken into care, like here four older siblings, and the couple and their new baby became the subjects of an extensive and high-profile search.
Gordon, who is representing himself, told jurors in his closing speech today (Monday 9 June): “The prosecution’s case is characterised, or simply put, as one of speculation.
“The prosecution would like you the jury to believe something that, despite all the theatrics, it is just a show, an act.
“My speech will demonstrate that the whole prosecution in this case is like a script from a movie, indeed a fictional novel.
“You will observe where the prosecution has just made things up and filled in the blanks in support of the plot, the narrative, the theme of the story.”
The prosecution has alleged that baby Victoria died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping in a “flimsy” tent, something that the couple had been warned about previously.
Her body was discovered along with rubbish in a Lidl “bag for life” shopping bag in a disused allotment shed in the Hollingdean area of Brighton after the defendants were arrested.
Last week, Tom Little, prosecuting, said in his closing speech: “They exposed their baby to the cold, damp and windy conditions with wholly inadequate clothing inside that tent.”
He added: “It was simply too cold. She could not maintain her temperature and death was inevitable.”
But Gordon told the jury: “The conditions in the tent were, according to my evidence, the right standard and posed no threat to Victoria. We are experienced campers.”
The defendant, who wore a light blue shirt and pale orange head covering in the witness box, told jurors that he and Marten, whom he called his wife, had pitched a tent “in a sheltered area with branches of a fallen tree”.
He said: “Its (the fallen tree’s) significance is added insultation and an effective wind barrier.”
He showed jurors an image in which he was wearing layered clothing and said: “We had various items on our body hidden from view. These items, as well as my wife’s excessive body fat … I am pointing that out to the jury as that is a relevant fact.”
The 51-year-old said: “It seems, by ignoring the facts which are all the time present, those who are actually responsible for triggering the events remain in the shadows. There are those who would like to alter the truth.
“There was no interim care order in place which gave the state custody or a right to start the great chase.”
He told the court that he and his partner “didn’t even have time to process the bereavement” when their baby Victoria died.
Last week, jurors were told that Gordon had been convicted of raping a woman in Florida while armed with a knife and hedge cutters in 1989 when he was aged 14.
Within a month, he entered another property and carried out another offence involving “aggravated battery”, the jury was told.
In February 1994, Gordon was jailed for 40 years. He went on to be released having served 22 years.
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.
