Constance Marten and her partner Mark Gordon caused the “entirely avoidable” death of their baby daughter, their retrial has heard.
Marten, 37, and Gordon, 50, are accused of the manslaughter of their newborn daughter by gross negligence in early 2023.
Jurors at the Old Bailey heard that the couple allegedly kept the birth of their daughter as “their little secret” after their four older children were taken into care.
On 5 January 2023, the defendants went on the run with the baby after their car burst into flames on a motorway in Greater Manchester, jurors heard.
They fled the scene, and went on to travel hundreds of miles across England in taxis costing thousands of pounds, the court was told.
Prosecutor Tom Little KC said Marten came from a “very wealthy family” and had a trust fund so could buy whatever she needed.
Couple ‘went off-grid’
Constance Marten and partner guilty of concealing birth of child and perverting course of justice
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon trial: Jury begins deliberations over manslaughter charges
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon trial: Couple’s newborn baby ‘did not stand a chance’, court hears
Mr Little said the couple travelled from Harwich to Colchester in Essex and on to east London before making their way to the South Downs where they went “off-grid” and slept in a “flimsy” tent from 8 January.
The couple transferred the baby to a Lidl bag for life after dumping a brand new buggy and were next seen on 12 January at a Texaco garage where Marten bought snacks with cash. There was no sign of the baby.
Mr Little told the jury: “You will have to consider if the baby had by now died of hypothermia, or had been smothered and suffocated in the obviously dangerous sleeping conditions in that tent, or whether she was still alive at this point but that her fate was sealed by the conduct of the defendants carrying her in a bag for life.”
After the baby died, the defendants continued to sleep rough and scavenge in bins for food while carrying the body in the same Lidl bag.
Baby’s decomposed body discovered
The child’s decomposed body was eventually found by police a few days after the defendants were detained in Brighton on 27 February 2023.
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Mr Little told jurors: “They put their relationship and their views of life before the life of a little baby girl.
“Rather than act in the obvious best interests of a vulnerable baby and one that they should have cared for and looked after, they decided instead that they knew best.
“They decided to ignore the advice that they had previously been given. They decided that in the middle of winter and in obviously dangerous weather conditions they would deprive the baby of what it needed – warmth, shelter, protection and food and ultimately safety.
“They essentially went off-grid and lived in a tent with hardly any clothes, no means of keeping and remaining warm and dry and with scarcely any food.”
It was their “grossly negligent and obviously dangerous conduct” that caused the death of the baby, jurors were told.
“After the baby died, in January 2023, the defendants did not hand themselves in but instead remained off-grid, trying to hide for a number of weeks, leaving the body of their dead baby in a shopping bag covered in rubbish, which they carried around and then left in a disused shed,” Mr Little added.
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Defendants deny manslaughter
Jurors were told the defendants were convicted at an earlier trial of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.
The defendants have denied manslaughter and a second charge of causing or allowing the death of a child between 4 January and 27 February 2023.
Marten appeared in court while Gordon did not, but jurors were told he might join the proceedings later by video link.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC warned jurors against “jumping to any conclusions” before hearing all the evidence in the case.
The Old Bailey retrial is expected to last for up to eight weeks.
