Constance Marten admits in court she 'feels responsible' for death of her baby
A mum whose newborn baby girl died while she and its father were on the run has told jurors she feels responsible for her death.
Constance Marten is currently giving evidence in her own manslaughter trial. The 36-year-old and partner Mark Gordon are charged with killing their baby Victoria after taking her to live in a tent, in a desperate bid to stop her being taken away by social services, the court has been told.
The pair camped on the South Downs in wintry conditions last year, the court was told after they abandoned their car weeks earlier when it burst into flames near Bolton, Greater Manchester last January 5. The court heard they were finally arrested in Brighton last February 27.
Giving evidence today, Marten told jurors: “She was our pride and joy. I had four kids. I know how to look after children. Our primary concern was Victoria. I do feel responsible for falling asleep on her if that’s what happened. I’m not sure because the autopsy was inconclusive but I do feel responsible for her.”
Constance Marten has told jurors that she did not want police to find her newborn baby Victoria’s remains (Julia Quenzler / SWNS)Jurors have heard how the couple went on the run from authorities in a bid to keep their baby after their four other children were taken into care. The court was told the couple refused to answer urgent questions from police after they were arrested about where their baby was and whether she was alive or dead.
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Her remains were found by police in a Lidl bag inside a shed on a nearby allotment on March 1 2023. Today, Marten the court jurors how she and Gordon “lay low” and wanted to “hide away from people” in the days after Victoria died and were reduced to rummaging in bins for food.
They left Victoria in the tent a couple of times when they ventured out but usually carried her with them, disguising themselves with glasses and a cap, the court was told. They narrowly avoided arrest on one occasion when they ate sandwiches on Brighton beach with Victoria’s body.
Marten and Gordon (PA)Marten said: “We had walked to Brighton once with her body and went to the beach two-and-a-half weeks before being arrested. Someone noticed us on the beach, police cars started coming to the beach. We, by hook or by crook, got back to the park undetected. We stopped going out. Mark got extremely thin.”
She added that soon after, they stopped going into Brighton because they were “just too scared” and Gordon began looking anorexic, she said. Defence barrister Francis FitzGibbon KC asked: “How did you think this was all going to end?” Marten replied: “I don’t think I was really thinking to be honest. We were in a heightened state of grief and fear. I kept toying with handing myself in.”
The defendant was asked about CCTV footage showing her and Gordon rummaging in bins for food at Collingwood Golf Club. Marten added: “I realised we could not live like this. It was not sustainable. We were sharing one piece of bread out of the bin. It was not sustainable so I said to Mark we are just going to have to try to get some money out.
The pair on CCTV (PA)“I said ‘Baby, you are not in a good state, neither am I. We have got to get some food, get blood sugar up and figure out what we are going to do. My blood sugar was very low. Mark was hobbling with a stick. He had ripped the end of one of his toes off. It was getting infected. He was in a bad way.”
Marten was asked about why she did not want to speak to police when she was arrested with Gordon in Brighton. She said: “I was terrified, fear of this happening. What’s happening now. Being on trial, the press. I just think there had been so much media presence that the truth would not be accepted and they would make us out to be awful people and I was not prepared to tell them what happened.”
She added: “I just knew they were going to have an absolute field day with us. We had been number one in the news for so long I did not have any trust in the process, the system. When they told me they found the body, there was no point in saying no comment because they had found her. There was no point.” Asked how she was feeling at the time, Marten said: “Depressed, grief, stress.”
Marten with one of her children (Facebook)Yesterday when Marten first took the stand in her ow defence, she described how Victoria was born at a rental cottage on Christmas Eve 2022 and died last January 9. Asked about the time when Victoria died, she said: “I had her in my jacket and when I woke up my head was on the floor. And when I was sitting up and when I woke up she was not alive.”
The defendants, 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. The trial continues.
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