Aristocrat Constance Marten has compared prosecutors in her Old Bailey baby manslaughter trial to Dementors from the Harry Potter series, in her latest diatribe from prison.
The 38-year-old is facing years behind bars after she was convicted alongside partner Mark Gordon, 50, of killing their newborn baby while on the run.
In an Old Bailey trial packed with drama, both Marten and Gordon refused to be cross-examined by prosecutors and quit their evidence before facing tough questions.
Marten, who is currently held at HMP Bronzefield, has now compared prosecuting barristers Joel Smith KC and Tom Little KC to the Harry Potter figures who guard Azkaban Prison while sucking out the soul and happy memories from anyone they “kiss”.
“Tom Little and Joel Smith remind me of Dementors from Harry Potter”, she said. “There’s no empathy. I felt like I was being grilled as a serial killer.”
Marten, who hailed from an aristocratic family with ties to Royals, and partner Gordon, a convicted violent rapist, went on the run in late 2022 when she was about to give birth.
Their first four children had already been taken from them in family court proceedings, and they feared their fifth, baby Victoria, would also be put into care.
But while on the run, they chose to camp in wet and cold conditions on the South Downs, and ended up killing the days-old baby.
The trial heard the couple abandoned their possessions, including warm clothing, in a warped attempt to stay away from social services, and ended up sleeping in a flimsy tent with little access to food.
Marten’s interview appears to have been given a week after she walked out of the witness box in the middle of her evidence and before the jury delivered its guilty verdicts.
She has been in custody since late February 2023, when she and Gordon were arrested and shortly before baby Victoria’s body was found in a Lidl bag for life, covered in rubbish and abandoned in a disused shed.
Marten’s interview was with magazine The View, a publication set up by one of her fellow inmates, Farah Damji, who has a string of convictions including for fraud and stalking.
The author of the article dubbed Mr Smith “seasoned and aggressive”, and suggested he and Mr Little are “known for their ruthless courtroom tactics…when a conviction is paramount”.
“I feel as if Joel Smith is just trying to belittle and demean me”, Marten complained.
“They all use this disgusting tone, like they’re reprimanding a small child. I’ve heard them laugh and joke with others, but with me, it’s always condescending. I just shut down because no one wants to be spoken to like that.”
She added: “They’re paid to make angels look like devils and devils appear angelic”.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC gave jurors a direction before they began deliberations that the weight given to the evidence of the defendants may be limited because they had refused to answer prosecution questions.
Gordon, when representing himself and giving ‘evidence in chief’, cast himself as a person of good character, which led to the prosecution successfully applying to enter into the trial the fact that he was convicted of raping a woman as a 14-year-old in the US and had also beaten a man over the head with a shovel during a home invasion.
Additionally, Gordon was convicted of assaulting female police officer when they were called out to investigate strange behaviour at a hospital shortly after Marten had given birth to one of their children.
The magazine refers to Marten’s “harrowing experience on trial at the Old Bailey”, and the article allowed her to air her view that she was wrongly prosecuted and that “truth doesn’t seem to matter”.
Referring to the moment she stopped her evidence, she said: “I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t stop crying. The court was filled with journalists. The judge had to excuse the jury. I told Joel Smith, ‘I’ve had enough of your character assassination. I’ve bared my soul. I can’t keep doing this’.”
Marten also took aim at the judge over dental treatment she needed during the trial.
She claimed she “begged for a dentist appointment for three weeks” and had to come to court “in agony”.
“When he finally acted, the dentist confirmed I urgently needed a root canal or extraction.
The toothache incident was played out in front of journalists in the courtroom, as Marten’s evidence was delayed by several days as she either did not attend court or complained of pain.
Judge Lucraft took the extraordinary step of personally intervening to determine if a dentist could see her at the prison, and kept direct contact with the governor to monitor the situation.
He ultimately received a report confirming that Marten was suffering pain and significant dental work could be carried out. But he was also told that Marten herself had refused treatment.
In a previous article for the publication, Marten complained about Serco – the private company in charge of transporting prisoners to court.
In the latest piece, she repeated her complaints about “seven-hour transport in a metal cage, shouted questioning, and being forced to attend court while in severe physical pain”.
Marten and Gordon are in custody awaiting their sentencing hearing, which is set for the Old Bailey on September 15.
They were both convicted of gross negligence manslaughter, child cruelty, perverting the course of justice, and concealing the birth of a child.
