An aristocrat’s lover has denied killing their “beloved” new-born daughter and insists she died at just 16 days old after being kept warm, dry, and well-fed, the Old Bailey has heard.
Mark Gordon, 48, is accused together with Constance Marten, 36, of the manslaughter by gross negligence of baby Victoria during a manhunt last winter.
It is said they went on the run with the new-born baby, and allegedly camped on the freezing cold South Downs in January and into mid-February in a “selfish” bid to avoid the youngster being taken into care.
Prosecutors suggest there were sightings of a live baby into February, when the couple are accused of carrying her around in a Lidl bag for life.
John Femi-Ola KC, representing Gordon, told Old Bailey jurors on Friday that he denies ill-treating the baby and says Victoria was born on Christmas Eve 2022 and died on January 9, 2023.
“The defence contends the baby was kept warm and dry, and was fed such that she was well-nourished”, he said.
“The baby was well cared for.
“The baby didn’t require medical assistance and died in the heart-breaking circumstances described by her mother in the interview with the police.”
When questioned after their arrest in late-February 2023, Marten said baby Victoria died in her arms as she slept.
“I believe I fell asleep on top of her”, she said. “She didn’t make any crying or movements, and when I woke up she wasn’t alive. Then I was holding her in my jacket, that’s how I usually held her but I think I fell asleep crouching over her and she passed away.”
On Thursday, prosecutor Tom Little KC told jurors the defendants are accused of “cruel” behaviour by taking the baby camping in -2 degree temperatures, allegedly without adequate food, warm clothing, and with just a “flimsy” tent for shelter.
It is said the couple moved around the country to locations including Bolton, Liverpool, Leeds and east London after going missing in late December2022, while the baby’s placenta was recovered from a burnt-out car at the side of the motorway on January 5.
Three days later, Marten and Gordon arrived by taxi in Newhaven in East Sussex and walked to the South Downs National Park, it is said.
Mr Femi-Ola said there is evidence to support the defence case that baby Victoria died the following day - a very short time into their camping stint on the South Downs - because petrol was bought on January 12 when the couple say they were considering how to give the baby a funeral.
Marten – who comes from an aristocratic family with ties to the Royal Family – told police she had contemplated a homemade cremation with the petrol, as well as burying the baby in the woods, but ultimately says she retained the body so that an autopsy could take place.
Mr Femi-Ola said Gordon will argue the baby was no longer alive when prosecutors says she was being carried around in a Lidl ‘bagfor life’.
“It’s the contention that the body was not disposed of, but rather that there was an attempt to preserve the body, for all the reasons that Constance Marten gave in her interview”, he said.
“She wanted to find out why her beloved baby died. Yes, beloved. She wanted there to be a post-mortem.”
He added that “not having post-natal care doesn’t amount to an offence”, and he urged the jury to distinguish between “muddled thinking and undisciplined thinking” by the couple while they were missing.
Marten and Gordon was the subject of a nationwide manhunt before their arrests in February 27, 2023. The body of baby Victoria was recovered from a disused shed near Brighton, where it was found in a carrier bag and under a pile of rubbish.
The couple, of no fixed address, deny manslaughter by gross negligence, perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty and causing or allowing the death of a child.
Gordon is in the dock, while Marten is currently absent from the trial.
