Constance Marten denies carrying baby in supermarket bag while on the run

Aristocrat Constance Marten has denied carrying her newborn girl in a supermarket bag while on the run, calling it “absolutely absurd”.

Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, are charged with the manslaughter of their daughter Victoria, who died after they went off-grid in early 2023.

The Old Bailey was previously told the couple were avoiding their fifth child being removed from them amid a high-profile police hunt for the missing baby, with Marten claiming her other children were “stolen by the state”.

The prosecution alleges Victoria died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping in a “flimsy” tent on the South Downs, despite past warnings.

The child’s body was discovered with rubbish inside a shopping bag in a disused shed near Brighton after the defendants were arrested on February 27 2023.

Giving evidence on Monday, Marten told jurors she and Gordon made the decision to flee to the countryside on January 7 2023 whilst in London because they had “so many people looking at us”.

A buggy that Victoria had been carried in was abandoned before they took a taxi from Whitechapel to Green Lanes in Haringey, the court heard.

Marten said that Gordon had held the baby on his chest under his jacket in a sling during that time, and that she had done so “in the same manner”.

Asked if there was any point where the couple were carrying her in the supermarket bag, Marten said: “Absolutely not. The whole point was to keep her hidden from view.

“It’s absolutely absurd.”

Wearing a green jumper in the witness box, Marten told the court she and Gordon had wanted to find a flat in East Ham which they would pay for in cash, but that their plans “were changing all the time”.

The court heard the couple spent several hours in restaurants and shops in East Ham on January 7 before taking a taxi to Whitechapel, where Gordon purchased a tent from Argos.

Asked about why they decided to travel to the South Downs that day, Marten said: “I think we noticed that there were just so many people looking at us.

“We thought with more people we might blend in more (in East Ham).”

Asked if Victoria was exposed to wet and rain in Whitechapel, Marten told jurors her pram had a plastic cover over it.

Marten and Gordon wanted to go to Plymouth whilst they were trying to figure out a way of getting abroad without their passports, which had been destroyed when their car caught fire several days before, she told the court.

They then ordered another taxi but it instead dropped them off at Green Lanes.

Marten said: “I thought he (the taxi driver) recognised us and I got scared that he would take us to the nearest police station.”

Marten and Gordon spent an hour in the area before getting a third taxi to Newhaven in East Sussex, the court heard.

Marten told jurors they only intended to stay in the tent “for a day or two” and had considered the idea of handing Victoria in to the local authorities as they arrived in Newhaven in the early hours of January 8.

But they decided to walk away from the urban area towards hills after it had stopped raining, she said.

She denied that either the parents’ clothing or Victoria’s got wet while they waited for rain to stop near to a petrol station.

Asked if the conditions were suitable for camping, Marten said: “If we knew it was something we could not bear, we would have gone to plan B and handed her in.”

Marten told the court she was “relatively warm” and they were all dry when they first got into it.

She said she did not go outside the tent on January 8 except to go to the toilet.

Gordon, who was sat in the dock on Monday, elected not to give evidence in the trial.

The pair, 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.