The partner of wealthy aristocrat Constance Marten has denied responsibility for the death of their baby, telling jurors: “There are no laws in regard to how you should raise your children.”
Mark Gordon, 51, said that he and Marten, 38, had been “dehumanised” and “vilified” during their retrial for the manslaughter of their daughter Victoria at the Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, London.
The jury was told how Victoria died after the defendants went off-grid and slept in a tent on the South Downs to avoid Victoria being taken into care amid a high-profile police search in January and February 2023.
Victoria’s badly decomposed body was in a Lidl “bag for life” which also contained rubbish and was found in a disused allotment shed in the Hollingdean area of Brighton after her parents’ arrest.
Gordon said that the “tragic incident” happened after he and Marten had been “hounded and traumatised” and already lost their four other children to the care system.
Representing himself, Gordon today (Tuesday 10 June) dismissed the prosecution case against them as a “fantasy”.
He said: “On the presumption of innocence, they have not proven the baby did not pass in the way we said. I say the prosecution just does not add up.”
The prosecution has claimed that Victoria was likely to have died from hypothermia in cold conditions in the tent or was smothered.
Gordon denied it, telling jurors that at the time they were in a state of “crisis” and had exercised “parental judgment”.
He said: “It may not be ideal. If the baby was left outside in cold conditions then that would be a no-brainer.”
Gordon denied conditions were “damp and wet” in the tent and insisted the baby was always kept “skin to skin”.
He went on: “We would have ensured she was protected at all times in a microclimate.
“I say the baby passed due to unintended circumstances. I say the parents had a difficult time and there is an aspect of mental challenge going on here. Is the solution to send them to a cell?”
The defendant told jurors that the baby died in the tent while both she and Marten were asleep but insisted there was “no clear evidence” it was due to co-sleeping.
He told jurors: “We were prepared to sacrifice everything for this baby. It should not have happened and it was not against the law to spend time with this baby – a fundamental human right to a family.
“The parents’ judgment is paramount. How many parents would be in the dock if you applied this same standard which I say is being applied to us?”
Gordon, who was convicted of raping a woman in America when he was 14 years old, told jurors that he should be judged for who he is now, saying: “There is always two sides to every coin.”
He said that there was “no way around” his criminal convictions but he also said that there were “racial challenges” in the US system.
Gordon added: “What happened when I was a child is questionable but that was many, many years ago.”
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.
Statistically, parents raise their children without them being found in these terrible circumstances their baby was found in. Representing himself legally? These individuals are just unrepresentable legally.
Marten and Gordon are unfit to be parents.
They are arrogant narcissistic liars who lived off her considerable inheritance and never did a days work.
They exercised their judgement and their four children are in care. The last one died in their care.
All about me me me…..
They should have put their child first first first….
Just seen them both walking around Penrith home bargains drive away in an old banger grey car.