The baby daughter of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon died needlessly, a jury was told today (Monday 10 March).
The couple, who were arrested in Brighton two years ago after a nationwide manhunt, are facing a retrial for manslaughter by gross negligence at the Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, in London.
Marten, 37, and Gordon, 50, caused the “entirely avoidable death of a young baby” while on the run from the authorities, the court was told.
Tom Little, prosecuting, said that the defendants allegedly kept the birth of their daughter as “their little secret” after their four older children were taken into care.
On Thursday 5 January 2023, they went on the run with the little girl after their car burst into flames on a motorway in Greater Manchester, the court was told.
Having fled the scene, they travelled hundreds of miles across England in taxis at a cost of thousands of pounds, jurors were told.
They went from Harwich to Colchester in Essex and then to east London before making their way to the South Downs where they went “off grid” and slept in a “flimsy” tent, Mr Little said.
He told jurors that Marten came from a “very wealthy family” and had a trust fund so she could have bought whatever she needed.
But having dumped a buggy hours after purchasing it, the defendants transferred the baby to a Lidl “bag for life” where she spent some of the rest of her short life, it was claimed.
Jurors were told that the couple started sleeping in a tent on Sunday 8 January 2023 and were next seen four days later at a Texaco garage, in Newhaven, where Marten bought snacks with cash. There was no sign of her baby.
Mr Little said: “You will have to consider if the baby had by now died of hypothermia or had been smothered and suffocated in the obviously dangerous sleeping conditions in that tent or whether she was still alive at this point but that her fate was sealed by the conduct of the defendants carrying her in a bag for life.”
After the newborn baby died, the defendants continued to sleep rough and scavenge in bins for food while carrying the body in the same Lidl bag.
The baby’s decomposed remains were eventually found by police in a disused shed, in Hollingdean, amid rubbish a few days after the defendants were detained in Brighton on Monday 27 February 2023.
In a police interview, Marten said that the baby had died after she fell asleep with the infant tucked under her coat.
She claimed that the child had “ample clothes” when she and Gordon decided to take themselves out of society to “save her from the services”. Mr Little said that this was a lie.
Gordon agreed with her account and claimed to police that the death of their baby was something “nobody could have ever have anticipated”.
But jurors were told that the risk was obvious and the couple had been warned before of the danger of living in a tent and sleeping directly with a baby.
Mr Little told jurors: “They put their relationship and their views of life before the life of a little baby girl.
“Rather than act in the obvious best interests of a vulnerable baby and one that they should have cared for and looked after, they decided instead that they knew best.
“They decided to ignore the advice that they had previously been given. They decided that in the middle of winter and in obviously dangerous weather conditions, they would deprive the baby of what it needed – warmth, shelter, protection and food and ultimately safety.
“They essentially went off-grid and lived in a tent with hardly any clothes, no means of keeping and remaining warm and dry and with scarcely any food.”
He said that the defendants’ decision to camp on the South Downs raised the risk of hypothermia and suffocation.
It was their “grossly negligent and obviously dangerous conduct” that caused the death of the baby, Mr Little said.
He added: “After the baby died, in January 2023, the defendants did not hand themselves in but instead remained off-grid, trying to hide for a number of weeks, leaving the body of their dead baby in a shopping bag covered in rubbish, which they carried around and then left in a disused shed.”
Jurors were told that the defendants had been convicted at an earlier trial of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.
The court was also told of the defendants’ history with social services, which led to a family court decision in February 2021 that their four other children should be adopted.
Mr Little said that the decision was “lawful and proper” and did not concern jurors in the retrial.
But the background provided evidence of Marten’s “lies and deceptions” and detailed warnings that had been given to the defendants about the risks of their conduct before 2023, the court was told.
The defendants, of no fixed address, have denied manslaughter and a second charge of causing or allowing the death of a child between Wednesday 4 January and Monday 27 February 2023.
Earlier, jurors were told that Gordon was not in the dock with Marten but that he might join the proceedings later by video link.
Judge Mark Lucraft warned jurors against doing any research about the case or “jumping to any conclusions” before hearing all the evidence.
The Old Bailey retrial is expected to last for up to eight weeks.
