Constance Marten accused of ‘fantastical’ claims about ‘Mission Impossible-style’ private investigators

Prosecutors claim Constance Marten and Mark Gordon’s baby Victoria died of hypothermia, but they insist it was a ‘tragic accident’

Aristocrat Constance Marten has been accused of making “fantastical” claims about “Mission Impossible-style” private investigators trailing her and her partner Mark Gordon.

A court heard how the couple feared they were being tracked by investigators hired by Marten’s wealthy relatives as they went on the run with their newborn daughter Victoria.

But lead prosecutor Tom Little KC dismissed their concerns - including fears investigators had tampered with their car which caught fire – as “fantastical” as he concluded his closing speech on Tuesday.

“The idea that in 2022 and 2023 there were some Mission Impossible-style private investigators coming out of the sky from nowhere to detonate vehicles. It’s fantastical. It’s mythical. It didn’t happen,” he told the court.

The Old Bailey previously heard that Marten’s mother employed a private investigator for two weeks in October 2016 because she was worried about her daughter.

Meanwhile, her father told police he had hired investigators to find her in 2017 and 2021.

However, both deny any private investigator was instructed to find her in 2022 or in 2023 – when she went on the run with Gordon and baby Victoria.

Marten, 36, and Gordon, 49, both deny gross negligence manslaughter of the newborn, whom they took off-grid to stop her from being taken into care like their four other children.

The mother previously told the court how she fell asleep with the infant zipped inside her jacket as they camped in wintry conditions in a “flimsy” tent on the South Downs last January, but awoke to find her dead.

Court artist sketch by Elizabeth Cook of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon at the Old Bailey (Elizabeth Cook/PA) (PA Wire)

The child’s remains were eventually found in a Lidl carrier bag covered with rubbish in a disused shed in Brighton on 1 March, two days after the parents were arrested after 53 days on the run.

Mr Little insisted on Tuesday the parents had carried Victoria in the carrier bag while she was still alive as they tried to travel the country undetected - something which Marten denied when she gave evidence.

He reminded the jury of two CCTV clips in which the prosecution claims Victoria must have been concealed in the bag, including the moment the couple arrived in Newhaven on 8 January last year – before they disappeared onto the South Downs.

“We suggest that the baby is in the bag for life, covered just as it had been earlier,” he told the court.

Concluding his case, Mr Little said the prosecution’s primary case is that Victoria died as a result of hypothermia after they fled with just a vest and a babygrow for the newborn.

He insisted Marten and Gordon’s four other children had been lawfully taken into care by a family court judge, adding: “What happened on the South Downs proves that judge right on the conduct of those parents.”

CCTV footage of Constance Marten with baby Victoria under jacket in East Ham (PA)

Mr Little also suggested that Marten had lied about the date of Victoria’s death – which she claims occurred a day after they arrived in Sussex - “because it got colder and colder in January and that is why the baby died”.

However John Femi-Ola KC, defending Gordon, insisted Marten was a “lioness” who deeply loved her children – adding that Victoria’s death was a “tragic accident”.

Mr Femi-Ola told the court the newborn died in her mother’s arms and insisted co-sleeping does not amount to neglect.

“It was an accident. It happened and it can happen. It happened and it can happen anywhere that a mother and baby are together,” he said, adding 149,000 babies co-sleep with their parents in this country every single night.

“We suggest that sleeping with a baby doesn’t amount to neglect and is not unlawful,” he added.

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon (PA)

He told the jury there is no evidence that Marten and Gordon were smoking, drinking or taking drugs in the tent.

“No, she was in her mother’s arms. It was a tragic accident,” he continued. “One can only imagine the sheer terror they must have felt when they discovered their beautiful girl had passed.”

The couple both deny gross negligence manslaughter of their daughter Victoria between 4 January and 27 February last year.

They also deny 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 Old Bailey trial continues.