Aristocrat Constance Marten is facing a re-trial over the death of her newborn daughter Victoria, along with the father of her five children Mark Gordon. The pair went off-grid to avoid their baby being taken into care
A woman accused of killing her newborn baby was “an exhausted breast feeding mother” who simply fell asleep causing the tot to stop breathing in a tragic accident, a court has been told.
Wealthy mum-of-five Constance Marten, 37, is facing a re-trial at the Old Bailey alongside her lover Mark Gordon, 50, who are accused of manslaughter by gross negligence and for causing or allowing the death of a child, charges they both deny. Yesterday, the court was told their baby, a girl called Victoria, would still be alive’ if not for their ‘reckless’ conduct.
Today, in a short statement to the jury, Marten’s defence lawyer Francis Fitzgibbon KC said: “The prosecution will try to prove to you that the baby’s death was a crime. They say that these two defendants are such bad parents, that they are criminally liable for the death. What the prosecution say is that Constance Marten’s care of her little baby was grossly negligent, and her care, or lack of it, was so bad as to make it criminal. The defence case for Constance Marten is this, the baby was born at the rented cottage in cumbria in December 24, 2022, she and Mr Gordon went on the run, they did not want their baby to be taken from them, as the others had been.
“By the 8th of January, 2023, Mr Marten was stressed and exhausted, they went temporarily into hiding to avoid unwanted attention while deciding what to do next. Mrs Marten exhausted, fell asleep over her baby, after breastfeeding and the consequence was the baby could not breathe and died. The baby died within a day or two of them pitching the tent, at about two weeks old.
“We say the death was caused by Ms Marten falling asleep and compromising the baby’s breathing and that we say is a tragic accident. Something that could happen anywhere when an exhausted breast feeding mother may fall asleep on her newborn baby. Then consumed by grief and still wishing to avoid the world, her existence was reduced to scavenging for food and living in appalling conditions, and she was unwilling to let go of the remains of the baby girl, despite the fact that she had died. What we say was no crime but a terrible, tragic accident.”
John Femi-Ola KC, for Gordon, told jurors baby Victoria was “well cared for, well loved and kept warm close to her mother” and he disputed the baby was ever carried in a bag-for-life before she died. Mr Femi-Ola added: “You will need to consider shock and grief after Victoria’s death. They neglected themselves for weeks thereafter, but that is not an indication of how they cared for their child.”
Opening the case at the Old Bailey, prosecutor Mr Mark Little QC told the jury that Marten came from a wealthy family, had a trust fund and had the means to find somewhere safe for her baby but instead, along with Gordon opted to live in a tent, when the baby had few clothes and not even a hat to keep her warm. They had already had their first four children taken into care.
Mr Little said: “Rather than act in the best and obvious best interests of that baby, they should have cared for her and looked after her in a very different way than they did, but they decided as they had often done before, that they knew best. They knew better than anyone else. They decided to ignore advice and they did that in the middle of winter and they would deny their baby of what she needed, warmth, shelter, protection, food and ultimately safety.
“They essentially went off grid, they lived in a tent and had no means of keeping and remaining warm and dry, with scarcely any food and they did that when they were burned out and exhausted from having been on the run for a number of days. They used a bag for life to carry the baby on occasions and when the hunt by the authorities to find them became front page news intensified, their desperation increased, as did the risk they were prepared to put the baby in.”
Today he added that Marten and Gordon did not just make a mistake, or a serious of mistakes, their actions were “grossly negligent”. He added: “The reason they were acting as they did was to try and prevent social services, or the police, or others, just to do their job. They were trying to prevent a child, who almost inevitably would have been taken into care, being taken into care, and it was care that she so dearly needed.
“What took place on the South Downs was done in the teeth of warnings, by social workers, and the courts and at a time when the defendants knew that other children, four of them, had been removed from their care, that is all part of your assessment as to whether what happened here was gross, and so it was.”
Marten and Gordon have already been found guilty of perverting the course of justice and concealing the birth of a child. The re-trial, expecting to take eight weeks, continues.
