THE moment a runaway couple’s car erupted in flames sparking a 54-day hunt that ended in their baby dying has been shown to jurors.
Constance Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, 49, allegedly concealed the birth of baby girl Victoria after she became pregnant in early 2022.
Met PoliceConstance Marten and Mark Gordon were hunted by police after their burning car was found, it is said[/caption]
Central NewsMarten is accused of killing her baby girl[/caption]
The pair then went on the run to stop her being taken away from them and lived in a “thin and flimsy” tent in the middle of winter, the Old Bailey heard.
Baby Victoria “spent much of her life” in a supermarket bag for life before her tragic death, it was said.
Her body was later discovered in the shopping bag covered in rubbish inside an abandoned shed like she was “refuse”, it was said.
Jurors were today shown a video of Marten and Gordon’s in flames on the M61 motorway on January 5 last year.
Van driver Ken Hudson told the Old Bailey he pulled over to help the couple after seeing the fire and noticed Marten was clutching a baby.
He asked if the tot was “OK”, causing Marten to respond: “She’s fine.”
Mr Hudson wept as he told how he touched the baby’s head and said words to the effect of “god bless keep safe”.
He added: “Throughout the year [since Victoria’s death] I have been cut up myself because I believe that if I had stayed with that vehicle and the people that that baby may still be alive.”
The discovery of the burning vehicle sparked a huge manhunt for the pair after officers found placenta wrapped in a towel.
Other items in the car included “new baby” nappies and newborn clothing, as well as “burner phones”.
A missing person‘s enquiry was launched, which became “bigger and bigger news” as time went on, jurors were told.
But instead of contacting police, Marten and Gordon allegedly instead tried to hide their whereabouts.
They are also accused of choosing to “deprive the baby of what she needed” – including “warmth, shelter and food and ultimately safety”.
In the middle of a “cold winter and in cruel and obviously dangerous weather conditions”, the pair “essentially went off-grid”.
Jurors heard they lived in a tent with barely any clothes and no means of keeping warm and dry.
With “scarcely” any food, Marten and Gordon remained on the run, failed to seek medical assistance or even register the birth as they moved from “location to the location”, it was said.
After setting their car alight, the court heard they travelled to Liverpool in a taxi with the baby kept underneath Marten’s coat.
They then headed to Harwich in Suffolk around 270 miles away and checked into a Premier Inn.
Jurors heard they were asked by locals if they were the “people they had seen on the news” so the couple left for Colchester then London.
They allegedly bought camping supplies despite the weather and transferred the baby into the supermarket bag.
Opening the case yesterday, prosecutor Tom Little KC said the case involved “the entirely avoidable death of a young baby”.
The prosecutor said: “A young baby girl who would still, we say, be alive if it was not for the reckless, utterly selfish, callous, cruel, arrogant and ultimately grossly negligent conduct of the two defendants on trial.
“They were the parents of that young baby girl. They put their relationship and their view of life before the life of that little baby girl.
“Rather than act in the obvious best interests of a vulnerable baby, one that they should have cared for and looked after, they decided instead that they knew best.
“They decided that they knew better than anyone else. No matter who they were. They decided to ignore the advice they had previously been given.
“And it was their selfish desire to keep their baby girl that led inexorably to the death of that very baby.”
Jurors were told Marten became pregnant with Victoria in early 2022 after four of her and Gordon’s other children had been taken into care.
By the end of the year, the pair were said to be living an off-grid existence amid fears their new baby would also be removed, it was said.
On December 20, they booked into a holiday cottage in Northumberland but left it seven days later “in something of a state”.
Pictures released by the police today show food scattered around the “trashed” letting.
Marten and Gordon deny manslaughter by gross negligence, concealment of the birth of a child, cruelty to a person under 16 and perverting the course of justice.
They also deny causing or allowing the death of a child, an alternative charge to manslaughter, between 4 January and 27 February last year.
Marten’s father was a page to the late Queen, while her grandmother was a goddaughter to the Queen Mother.
The trial continues.
Central NewsGordon and Marten lived off-grid in freezing weather, it was said[/caption]
PAShe allegedly gave birth in secret[/caption]
Met policeThe pair stayed in a holiday cottage before the baby was born, the court heard[/caption]
Met policeDespite the mess elsewhere, jurors heard all the bedding had been washed[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
