A couple will face trial over the death of their baby.
Aristocrat Constance Marten and her partner Mark Gordon who have been charged with the manslaughter of their daughter Victoria, will face up to a six week trial. The baby was found dead in Brighton on March 1.
Her remains were discovered in a plastic bag in a locked shed at an overgrown allotment in the Hollingbury area of the East Sussex seaside city. The body was found after Marten and Gordon were arrested in Stanmer Villas in Brighton, following a nation wide police hunt.
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An initial post-mortem examination was unable to establish the cause of the child's death and it is understood that tests are ongoing.
Detectives had been searching for the couple for several weeks before their arrest.
After making the grim discovery, Marten and Gordon were charged on March 2 with the manslaughter of baby Victoria, concealment of the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice. Today, on Friday, March 31, the couple appeared in the dock of Court One of the Old Bailey before the Common Serjeant of London, Judge Richard Marks KC.
Marten, 35, wore a smart white and black patterned blouse and Gordon, 48, was dressed in a grey sweatshirt. They spoke only to confirm their names and dates of birth.
Judge Marks set a plea and case management hearing for August 18 with the defendants to appear by video link. A provisional trial at the Old Bailey before the Recorder of London, Judge Mark Lucraft KC, was set for January 2 2024.
The case is expected to last between four and six weeks. There was no application made for bail and the defendants were remanded into custody.
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