13 March 2024 , 14:29
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A woman on trial for killing her newborn daughter told the jury "Jesus survived in a barn didn't he?" as she was questioned over her decision to sleep with the infant in a tent.
Constance Marten is on trial for manslaughter at the Old Bailey alongside her partner Mark Gordon after the pair lived off grid on the South Downs when baby Victoria was only a few weeks old. Under cross examination the 36-year-old mother of five told the jury they had been staying in hotel rooms to stop social services taking Victoria, after their first four children were put in care.
Prosecutor Joel Smith asked her whether she had felt it was a big decision to go and sleep in a tent with a newborn. Marten said: "When my two year old was physically abused in care, spat on and thrown on the floor it's a pretty easy decision. I kept telling the local authorities my children were coming in with bruises and they ignored me - it was only last year they admitted it and my children were finally removed from that particular person."
She went on: "I've grown up with lots of luxury, I've been very blessed, so I don't like living in a tent but I will do anything for my child. I would rather be in plush bed in a palace but for my child I'll live in a tent. I have to save my child, she's my number one priority, we weren't in a tent for us, it was for Victoria.
"I'd rather have been in a house but we were driven to this situation because of the public pressure. Had those factors not been around we wouldn't have been in a tent, we can't prepare for everything, an instinct, a mother's love for her child is incredibly strong and no way was I gonna part with my child.
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CCTV of Victoria in a pram was shown to the court (PA)"We weren't just running now from private investigators hired by my family or the police or social services, we were pretty much hiding from the entire public because I was worried about my children being taken. Of course it's not the best environment go bring up a child but I have to choose between saving her from the local authority who have acted abominably with my other children and saving my daughter and I would go to any lengths to do that.
"If I ever thought she was unsafe or not warm my priority was to save my baby so I would never have put her in a situation where I felt she wasn't cared for."
CCTV of Victoria under Marten's coat was played to the court (PA)The prosecutor pressed: "So Constance Marten knows better than social services?" Marten replied: "Absolutely, social services are an absolute abomination and one day I do believe like with the post office scandal it will be looked at, how those people behave and they'll be uproar and I also believe our case will be looked at and we will get a public apology, that's how bad it was."
Asked again if she felt a baby was safe in a tent in January she added: "Jesus survived in a barn didn't he?"
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 Old Bailey trial continues.