Constance Marten trial – latest: Aristocrat accused of killing newborn calls baby’s death a ‘horrible accident’
Marten and partner Mark Gordon deny gross negligence manslaughter of their daughter Victoria
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Aristocrat Constance Marten has called the death of her newborn baby a “horrible accident” that “could’ve happened to anyone”.
Marten, 36, and her partner Mark Gordon, 49, are on trial after their daughter Victoria died while they were camping on the South Downs in wintry conditions last year.
Following their arrests last February, the infant’s badly decomposed body was found in an allotment shed inside a Lidl supermarket bag that also contained soil and rubbish.
On Thursday, her fifth day of giving evidence in her trial, the mother was also cross-examined at the Old Bailey about the couple’s decision to buy a tent and live off grid to hide from authorities, telling jurors: “Babies don’t require that much to survive.”
The couple deny charges of gross negligence manslaughter of Victoria between 4 January and 27 February last year, charges of perverting the course of justice by concealing the body, along with concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty, and allowing the death of a child.
The trial resumes on Friday when the cross-examination of Marten is set to continue.
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Trial resumes after lunch break
The 12 jurors have now returned to their seats and Constance Marten has returned to the witness box to continue being cross-examined.
Jury retires for lunch
This morning’s proceedings have now come to an end, with the jury due to return at 2pm to continue Constance Marten’s cross-examination.
Marten claims GPS trackers were found under their cars
Marten told the court she believed vehicles the couple were using were being tampered with, and stated her belief that private investigators had been tailing them.
She also told jurors that she had avoided using her card in order to prevent her movements from being traced.
She said: “Having found GPS trackers under all of our cars, the way every single one of our cars has just stopped in the middle of the motorway… I believe that happened because I used my card that night.”
‘I am excellent mother,” Marten tells court
Marten has faced questioning this morning over her decisions on whether to register her child with a doctor or for school, and her intentions in fleeing abroad with her newborn baby.
Claiming that her other four children had been “stolen by the state”, she said of her daughter Victoria: “She deserves to be with me, I’m a good mother.
“I’m an excellent mother actually and she deserves my love and attention.”
Marten planned to pay someone to smuggle her child abroad
Joel Smith, prosecuting, asked: “You wanted to find someone and pay them to smuggle your child abroad?”
Marten confirmed and said she would liked to use a nanny or a professional.
When asked “Do you think nannies take money to smuggle people abroad?”, she responded: “Where there’s a will there’s a way.
“I would have found someone online like on Gumtree, nannies who don’t necessarily have the same qualifications as nursery teachers but you can go and spend time with them and see how they are with children.
“I would have either brought her abroad with me or given her to someone.”
Couple plotted to take newborn baby abroad
Speaking about their intention to take baby Victoria abroad, Marten says they had planned to illegally smuggle themselves to Europe but had struggled to make the right connections or formulate a plan to do so.
Blaming social services, she said: “They put me in a situation where I didn’t know what to do.”
“I would have given her to a carer who doesn’t work with social services, a nanny or someone,” she said.
Marten claims family member made a court order preventing her to travel
Speaking at the Old Bailey, Constance Marten claims that a family member had prevented her from going abroad by allegedly instilling a travel ban through the High Court.
Answering questions from prosecutor Joel Smith, she told jurors that she and Mark Gordon had planned to go abroad to raise baby Victoria, but had been unable to do so due an alleged court order preventing her from travelling abroad.
“They stated I was bearing children to sell on the back market and was a drug addict. It was completely outrageous.”
She claimed that this High Court case had been “behind her back” and that she was not represented and did not receive advice from a solicitor.
“My family have a lot of money, a lot of clout. and a lot of connections,” she said.
Constance Marten returns to the witness box
Constance Marten has returned to the witness stand for her cross-examination by prosecutor Joel Smith to continue.
She is due to face further questioning throughout the day.
We’ll bring you all the latest updates here.
Trial has resumed
The trial of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon has resumed, with legal arguments taking place before cross-examination continues at 11am.
Recap: Marten told jurors she feels ‘responsible’ for falling asleep on baby daughter
During her cross examination on Friday, Constance Marten told jurors that she feels “responsible” for “falling asleep” on her newborn baby daughter.
She said that she and her partner Mark Gordon were in a “state of grief and fear” and that they had considered handing herself in to the police, but was worried she would be blamed for the infant’s death.
The 36-year-old added that she was “terrified” that she would have to stand trial, and said that she did not want the police to find baby Victoria’s remains.
However, she said that their daughter had been their “pride and joy” and that the newborn had been shown the maximum amount of love during her short life.
Criticising social services as “corrupt”, the aristocrat added that she had used a false identity to give birth to her first child in order to escape her family, who she described as “extremely oppressive and bigoted”.
Facing questions over whether it was safe to raise a newborn in a ten in winter, she argued that they were looking at it from a “Western perspective” and cited children living in igloos and in Mongolia as an example.