Wealthy aristocrat Constance Marten and her convicted rapist partner “sought to mask the reality” to the jury and were “picking and choosing what questions to answer”, a prosecutor has said.
Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 50, are charged with the manslaughter of their baby daughter Victoria, who died in a tent on the South Downs in early 2023.
A high-profile manhunt had been launched after the defendants fled their burning car near Bolton, Greater Manchester, and went off-grid in a bid to avoid their fifth child being taken into care, the Old Bailey has heard.
The prosecution had alleged Victoria died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping in a “flimsy” tent, despite past warnings.
Her body was discovered with rubbish inside a shopping bag in a disused shed near Brighton after the defendants were arrested.
On Monday, prosecutor Tom Little KC said: “The one thing that these two defendants have not done is have their account tested, have they?
“They’ve acted as a team… refused to have their accounts tested and probed.”
Baby Victoria “never stood a chance”, the prosecution added.
Mr Little told the jury the defendants “sought to mask the reality to you” and were “picking and choosing what questions to answer”.
“In short, hoping, we would suggest, to trick you,” he said.
Of Marten, Mr Little said “lies fall from her mouth, we suggest, and have always done, like confetti floating in the wind”.
The prosecution said baby Victoria “would still be alive if the defendants had not gone on to the South Downs”.
He said: “Had these two defendants stayed at the side of the M61… the baby would still be alive.”
Mr Little said: “This case is about very serious failings to look after a baby, this case is about significant risks.”
Last week, jurors were told that Gordon had been convicted of raping a woman in Florida while armed with a knife and hedge clippers in 1989 when he was aged 14.
Within a month, he entered another property and carried out another offence involving “aggravated battery”, the court was told.
In February 1994, Gordon received a sentence of 40 years’ imprisonment, of which he served 22 years.
In 2017, Gordon had pleaded guilty to assaulting two police officers who had been called to a maternity ward in Wales after Marten gave birth to one of Victoria’s older siblings, jurors have heard.
Gordon had to be forcibly restrained during the incident and a new father had stepped in to help the two female officers before more police arrived to arrest him.
Marten and Gordon, of no fixed address, have denied the gross negligence manslaughter of their daughter and causing or allowing her death between January 4 and February 27 2023.
Jurors have been told the defendants were convicted at an earlier trial of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.
The trial continues.
