Constance Marten trial - latest: Judge summing up evidence as court case over baby death enters final stages
Marten and Gordon are accused of gross negligence manslaghter of the newborn
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The judge is summing up the evidence as the trial of aristocrat Constance Marten and her partner Mark Gordon over the death of their baby enters its final stages.
The couple is accused of 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 Recorder of London, Judge Mark Lucraft KC, began summing up the evidence to the jury at the Old Bailey on Thursday. Evidence recapped so far includes eyewitness Ken Hudson, who stopped to help the couple when their car caught fire on the M61 near Bolton on 5 January.
Mr Hudson previously told the court he fears baby Victoria would still be alive if he had stayed at the roadside with the parents until police arrived. But the pair fled with baby Victoria after he pulled away, leaving their burning car at the roadside along with most of their possessions.
Police later found £2000 in cash, Marten’s passport, 34 burner phones and a placenta wrapped in a towel in the burnt-out vehicle.
Marten, 36, and Gordon, 49, both deny the charges of gross negligence manslaughter of Victoria between 4 January and 27 February last year. They also deny charges of perverting the course of justice by concealing the body, concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty, and allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
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Parents deny private investigators were trailing Marten when she went on the run
In agreed facts read to the jury on Thursday, they were told Marten’s parents had made statements to the police about their use of private investigators.
The court heard that Marten’s mother employed a private investigator for two weeks in October 2016 because she was worried about her daughter.
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.
What is happening today?
The prosecution is expected to begin their closing speech today in the Old Bailey trial of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon.
Marten, 36, and her partner Mark Gordon, 49, have been accused of manslaughter after their daughter Victoria died while they were camping on the South Downs in sub-zero temperatures last January.
Constance Marten ‘given £48k’ from family trust fund in months up to her baby’s death
A fugitive aristocrat was given almost £50,000 from her family trust fund in the months before she disappeared with her partner and newborn baby, a court has heard.
Constance Marten was given £47,886 by C. Hoare & Co between September 2022 and January 2023. A police appeal to find them was launched on January 6 last year.
Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, 49, went on the run with their daughter Victoria after their car burst into flames near Bolton, Greater Manchester, last January.
Read the full article here:
Constance Marten ‘given £48k’ from family trust fund in months up to her baby’s death
Constance Marten was given the substantial sum of money by a family trust fund just months before ran off with her newborn baby, court hears
‘Jesus survived in a barn’: Constance Marten defends living in tent with newborn
An aristocrat accused of killing her baby has defended living off-grid while on the run with her newborn, telling jurors: “Jesus survived in a barn, didn’t he?”.
Constance Marten, 36, and her partner, Mark Gordon, 49, are on trial after baby Victoria died while they were camping on the South Downs in wintry conditions last year.
While being cross-examined at the Old Bailey, she argued their period living in a tent on the South Downs was being looked at from a “Western perspective”, adding that Bedouin families walk through cold deserts with children while others live in shanty towns.
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‘Jesus survived in a barn’: Aristocrat accused of killing baby defends living in tent
Constance Marten, on trial at the Old Bailey with her partner Mark Gordon, also insisted that the couple had not ‘dumped’ their baby in a Lidl rubbish bag
Fugitive aristocrat Constance Marten was a good mother and did nothing wrong, partner told police
The partner of aristocrat Constance Marten told police she was a “good mother” and had “done nothing wrong” when questioned about the death of their newborn baby.
Mark Gordon, 49, initially refused to answer questions when he and 36-year-old Ms Marten were arrested in Brighton some seven weeks after going on the run with their daughter Victoria.
In a police interview last March, he started by saying he would give his testimony to a jury.
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Fugitive aristocrat was a good mother and did nothing wrong, partner told police
Gordon suggested Marten was suffering from ‘a post-traumatic thing’
ICYMI: Constance Marten says baby Victoria died because she was exhausted on the run
During her evidence in March, Constance Marten denied neglecting her baby – insisting the infant died because Marten didn’t look after herself while on the run in the days after she gave birth.
The aristocrat also told jurors she and her partner Mark Gordon did not hand themselves in to the authorities because she does not trust the police or social services after their other four children were taken into care.
Read the full story from our crime correspondent here:
‘I neglected myself’: Constance Marten says baby died because she was exhausted
The mother admitted she advised her partner Mark Gordon to lie to police because they would ‘automatically blame him, being a black guy’
Aristocrat accused of killing newborn says babies ‘don’t require that much to survive’
An aristocrat accused of killing her newborn baby has defended the conditions her daughter was left in while she and her partner were on the run, telling jurors: “Babies don’t require that much to survive.”
Constance Marten, 36, and her partner, Mark Gordon, 49, are accused of gross negligence manslaughter after their daughter Victoria died while they were camping on the South Downs in wintry conditions last year.
During her fifth day of testifying at the Old Bailey, the 36-year-old told jurors on Thursday: “People have survived without houses and hospitals for millennia. Babies don’t require that much to survive – they just need food, warmth and care.”
Read the full article here
Constance Marten tells manslaughter trial babies ’don’t require that much to survive’
Constance Marten and partner Mark Gordon deny gross negligence manslaughter of daughter Victoria
‘Exceedingly unlikely’ baby Victoria died from cold, Constance Marten trial told
An expert has told jurors it was “exceedingly unlikely” fugitive mother Constance Marten’s newborn baby died from the cold.
Marten, 36, and her partner Mark Gordon, 49, were living off grid in a tent on the South Downs when their daughter Victoria died, the Old Bailey has heard.
In her evidence, Marten has said the child died when she fell asleep while holding her under her jacket in the tent last January 9.
Read the full article here:
‘Exceedingly unlikely’ baby Victoria died from cold, Constance Marten trial told
Victoria’s badly decomposed body was found inside a Lidl bag on an allotment shed.
Watch: Police ask Constance Marten ‘where is your child?’ during arrest
Watch: Police ask Constance Marten ‘where is your child?’ during arrest
Police repeatedly asked Constance Marten "where is your child" in a video of her arrest in Brighton shown to jurors at the Old Bailey on Tuesday (6 February). The aristocrat, 36, and Mark Gordon, 39, were arrested on suspicion of child neglect on 27 February 2023 after going on the run. The couple had allegedly been living with their newborn baby off-grid in a tent on the South Downs for weeks. Marten and Gordon deny gross negligence manslaughter of their newborn daughter. The baby's remains were found in a disused shed, hidden by a plastic bag and covered in rubbish “as if she was refuse”, the prosecution told the court. The trial continues.