Aristocrat Constance Marten has declined to continue her cross-examination by the prosecution as she stands trial over the death of her newborn baby.
Jurors at the Old Bailey were told on Tuesday that the mother, 37, who was due to answer questions from prosecutor Joel Smith KC, had indicated she “didn’t wish to continue” giving evidence.
She has previously given her evidence in chief and spent half a day in the witness box responding to questions from her partner and co-defendant Mark Gordon, who decided to represent himself in court after his barristers withdrew.
Ms Marten and Mr Gordon, 50, deny gross negligence manslaughter of their daughter Victoria and causing or allowing her death while they were on the run in January 2023.
The prosecution alleges Victoria died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping in a "flimsy" tent after they took her “off-grid” on the South Downs in a bid to stop her from being taken into care like their four other children.
Victoria’s decomposing remains were later found stashed in a rubbish-filled shopping bag in a disused allotment shed.
Last week she called Mr Smith KC “diabolical” and “heartless” as he started the cross-examination for the prosecution, asking her whether leaving Victoria’s body in a bag filled with rubbish was a "despicable thing" to do.
“Mr Smith you are diabolical…I find the way you cross examine me really uncouth,” she said. “You really are a heartless human being.”
After he questioned her journalism experience and why she gave fake names at hotels while police were looking for her, she broke down, telling the court she found Mr Smith “abhorrent” and she was tired of being “grilled and my character being defamed”.
“I understand that I am being prosecuted but I am just not going to sit here and be spoken to like that,” she added.
When jurors returned to court on Tuesday they were told that she had been given special permission to speak to her barrister in the middle of her evidence as she decided whether to continue, but it remained her “firm view” that she would not return to the witness box.
The Recorder of London, Mark Lucraft KC, told the jury: “I, in due course, will direct you about what consequence that has.
“As you may expect, if somebody doesn’t complete their evidence the weight you have to give it should be considered very carefully.”
Marten previously told jurors that sheltering in the tent was intended to be a "pit stop" to avoid "prying eyes". She wept as she said that she would "turn back time" if she knew Victoria was in danger, adding that they "spent so long trying to protect her".
She described taking Victoria on the run as a “selfless act”, adding: “Mark and I don’t relish being on the move constantly it is a constant upheaval you can’t put down roots anywhere…but we did it because we love our daughter so much. It was a parental love, it was a selfless act.”
She said she did not know if she “fell asleep, blacked out or fainted” but woke up slumped over the lifeless infant.
Last year, the parents were convicted of concealing the birth of the child and perverting the course of justice in a previous trial.
The retrial continues.
