Aristocrat's family 'accused her of selling babies on black market'

11 March 2024 , 13:53

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Constance Marten with one of her five children (Image: Facebook)

A woman on trial accused of killing her newborn daughter has told a jury her family claimed she was having children to sell them on the black market.

Constance Marten is currently being cross-examined 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.

Marten previously told the court that she "gave her baby the best any mother could" and did "nothing but show her love". Asked by her defence barrister Francis Fitzgibbons KC asked: "Have you ever harmed any of your previous children?" Marten replied: "Absolutely not, that’s the sad thing, Mark and I love those children more than anything in the world. I’m pretty angry they have gone through this process. There's nothing I wouldn't do for my children."

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. Her remains were found by police in a Lidl bag inside a shed on a nearby allotment on March 1 2023.

Under cross examination today, prosecutor Joel Smith asked Marten: "Do you remember what you were doing when you found out you were pregnant with Victoria?" She replied: "I'm not sure what the relevance of that question is."

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Marten was told by the judge to answer the question. "I would have been on the toilet," she replied. Marten went on to say that her children were taken away from her 'illegally' She said: "It is abhorrent. My children were stolen from me by the state, there is no other way to say it."

She said that she wanted to go abroad illegally with Victoria after the baby had first spent the first three months of her life with her mother. "Our plan was to go abroad to get Victoria away from the services and my family. Unfortunately, there were preventatives to me going abroad."

Marten and Gordon in a kebab shop with baby Victoria (PA)

Marten claimed that a family member had got a court order that banned her from leaving the country. She said: "They had the full backing of the state to do that. They said that I was bearing children to sell on the black market, that I was a drug addict. Those accusations are wholly unfounded."

Marten said that social services had stopped her at the border in the past when she had tried to go abroad. She added "They had done it before in the past when I tried to take my children to Ireland. I wanted to stay with her for the first three months of her life. My number one concern was to keep my baby with her mother. I'm a good mother. I'm an excellent mother, in fact. She deserved to be with me."

She said that if they hadn't managed to go abroad, the plan was to find a carer who would take Victoria abroad illegally and she was going to find one on Gumtree. She told jurors: "I would have found one on Gumtree. I would meet them and live with them. I would have given her a carer who cares for other children who would then have taken her abroad under another name. There is a huge underground network of parents who have been through the services."

Marten is on trial for manslaughter (Facebook)

Last week, when Marten first took the stand in her own 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.”

Marten told jurors last week: “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.”

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.

Kelly-Ann Mills