A ‘grossly negligent’ aristocrat and her lover caused the death of their baby by going on the run with the newborn after their four children were taken into care, a court heard today.
Constance Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, are accused of fleeing across the country carrying their child in a ‘bag for life’, in a ‘grossly negligent and obviously dangerous’ manner in a bid to prevent the baby being taken away from them by social services.
The Old Bailey heard today that the couple hid their baby in a shopping bag covered in rubbish when she later died in freezing conditions after weeks on the run.
In a case which gripped the country, Marten is said to have given birth in secret before deciding to go on the run from the authorities, resorting to living in a tent in the middle of winter causing the ‘entirely avoidable death’ of the baby girl in January 2023.
Prosecutor Tom Little, KC, said of the case: ‘It involves the entirely avoidable death of a young baby. A young baby girl who would still be alive if it was not for the reckless and ultimately grossly negligent conduct of these two defendants.’
Marten, who hails from an aristocratic family, had previously had four other children with her partner Gordon, who had all been taken into care.
When she became pregnant with their fifth child in December 2022, they decided it would be their ‘little secret’, it was said.
Constance Marten (left), 37, and Mark Gordon (right), 50, have previously been convicted of concealment of the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice, jurors have been told
Mr Little told jurors: ‘Rather than act in the obvious best interest of a vulnerable baby, because all babies are vulnerable when they are but some days old, they decided as they had often done before that they knew best, they knew better than anyone else.
‘They decided to ignore the advice they had previously been given and decide that in the middle of winter and in obviously dangerous conditions they would deprive their baby of what she needed – warmth, shelter protection, food and ultimately one word – safety.
‘They essentially went off-grid, they lived in a tent with hardly any clothes or means of keeping or remaining warm or dry and with scarcely any food.
‘They did so when they were both themselves exhausted from having been on the run for a number of days and it was their desire to keep their baby girl that led to her death.
‘They went and they remained on the run, giving birth to the baby in secret. They did not seek any medical assistance before, during or after birth.
‘They did not register the birth but moved from location to location often overnight and using a bag for life, a supermarket bag for life, they used one of those to carry the baby on occasions.
‘And when the hunt by the authorities to find them, which became national front page news just over two years ago intensified, so their desperation increased and so did the risks and the dangers to the baby.
‘They decided to and then started camping in relatively cold and obviously dangerous conditions on the South Downs with totally insufficient and inadequate clothing and equipment for the baby, never once seeking any help or assistance.’
He told jurors that the couple made ‘bad decision after bad decision’ in their desperation to evade the authorities.
Mr Little said of Marten: ‘She comes from a very wealthy family. She has not had a deprived upbringing. Quite the opposite. She has a trust fund.
‘She had potential access to as much money as she wanted.’
He told jurors that the couple spent ‘hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds’ on taxis crossing the country, but they only bought one Babygro for their child and didn’t even have a hat for the newborn.
The pair could afford to stay in hotels, but instead they went camping in the ‘cold, wet, windy and dark’, spending money only on a ‘flimsy’ tent, pillows and sleeping bags, it was said.
Marten appeared in the dock today wearing a black jacket, white shirt, blue scarf and red lipstick.
Her partner Gordon was not in court.
A court artist’s sketch of Constance Marten appearing in the dock at the Old Bailey today
Judge Mark Lucraft, KC, the Recorder of London, told the jury: ‘Mark Gordon is currently not here.
‘We hope he will join us, even if on a link, during the course of the day.
‘The fact he’s not here doesn’t mean anything to you at all, we are just going to carry on as if he were here.’
Shortly after the couple went on the run with their baby girl, their car burst into flames on a motorway in Greater Manchester on January 5, 2023, jurors heard.
Police launched a nationwide hunt after discovering a placenta wrapped in a towel in the wreckage.
The couple dumped their belongings by the roadside and fled hundreds of miles across the country in taxis, travelling from Liverpool to Harwich, Colchester and then London in a bid to conceal their child, jurors were told.
There, Gordon was seen on CCTV with carrier bags tied around his shoes as they bought a buggy from an Argos in East London and a ‘thin’ and ‘flimsy’ tent, together with pillows and sleeping bags.
Mr Little said the couple then dumped the buggy they had just bought and put their baby into a Lidl bag for life, where she spent much of the rest of her life, it was said.
He told jurors: ‘It would have been plain to the defendants, you must have thought, that this was an utterly inappropriate way to care for any child, let alone their child.’
When the child was not much more than a week old they decided to go camping in the South Downs National Park in the middle of a cold winter’s night.
Mr Little told jurors: ‘A newborn baby is at a high risk of dying when exposed to cold weather conditions. Especially you may think in a tent during winter. Newborn babies have a limited capacity to maintain their body temperature.
‘They lose their body heat rapidly, especially if the body is not well covered. Their head is particularly prone to lose a lot of body heat rapidly due a relatively large surface area of the head as compared to rest of the body.
‘Anybody who has had a baby knows that and these two defendants had, had four of them before. As the evidence reveals they did not even have a single hat to cover that poor baby’s head.’
The Old Bailey heard that despite her wealthy upbringing and ready access to cash and bank cards, Marten was so desperate to avoid the authorities that she resorted to scouring rubbish bins for food.
Mr Little said: ‘It is so cold that they are trying to break in to find shelter and they are so hungry that they are scavenging for food from the bins. Yet they have bank cards. They have access to money.
‘They can contact the authorities for help. But they do none of those things. This evidence casts something of a light upon how they would have been willing to treat their daughter whilst she was alive.’
The couple were apprehended on February 27, 2023 after Marten was said to have resorted to attempting to steal items from a shop.
When they were captured, Gordon allegedly refused to answer questions about the whereabouts of his baby, demanding food instead.
Both defendants had not washed in weeks and Marten had furniture stuffing inside her clothing in an attempt to keep warm, it was said.
On March 1 police found the child’s body dumped in a disused shed.
‘The body was found wrapped in a plastic bag, underneath rubbish in that red Lidl bag for life. Also found in the shed was the defendants’ blue tent,’ Mr Little said.
‘It is instructive to note the lack of clothing for the baby to have kept her warm. There was no ability to wash clothing either. Again that tells you everything you need to know about the neglect of this young baby girl.’
Jurors were told today that the couple have previously been convicted of concealment of the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.
They now face a retrial on charges of manslaughter by gross negligence, which they both deny.
Marten and Gordon also deny causing or allowing the death of a child between January 4 and February 27, 2023.
The case continues.
