The father of a baby found decomposed in a shopping bag has blamed a national police manhunt for the death of his and his partner Constance Marten’s child.
Mark Gordon, 50, said that he and his aristocrat wife, 37, had become “deranged a bit” when they decided to live off-grid, and also said their newborn would “100 per cent” be alive if they had not been avoiding the police.
The couple are on trial, charged with the manslaughter of their baby daughter Victoria, who died on the South Downs in early 2023 following a large-scale police search.
The prosecution alleges Victoria died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping in the “flimsy” tent, despite past warnings.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC previously told the jurors that from now on, Gordon was going to represent himself after his barristers withdrew from the case.
Taking to the witness stand, Gordon blamed the decision for the police to launch a manhunt to search for them, saying: “If it had naturally played out, I believe the baby would still be alive today, 100 per cent, because ultimately we would have done the right thing.”
He said that he and Marten were already in a “scared state” after accusing private investigators of trailing them, and felt that they were “being harassed by various forces and this impacted our minds”.
“We had become deranged a little bit. We were off our heads,” Gordon told jurors.
The couple had previously been travelling around the country staying in Airbnbs and hotels, and said that prior to the manhunt they were “walking around and not hiding”.
Gesturing towards jurors, he said that police officers should have undertaken a risk assessment and realised that he and his wife were “panicked” and “afraid”.
“Who gave the command to do a national manhunt? We weren’t in the right state of mind,” he said.
He continued: “If you have a woman who has just given birth to a child … why chase them if there is fragility? If that manhunt had not begun, things would not have happened. I had no intention to live in a tent.
“To chase two parents who love their baby. We did not want the baby to come to harm.
“It was the chase that precipitated these events. We were not in the state of mind where a sound decision can be made.”
Wearing a blue shirt and pink headscarf, Gordon became at times teary and was handed tissues while giving evidence.
Recalling the events of 9 January, he insisted that the tent near Newhaven was a “safe” environment for the child with adequate space.
He told jurors the baby was their priority “1,000 per cent”, adding: “We would never ever subject that baby to any risk, ever. What happened, no one could have anticipated.”
He said that it was a “surreal moment” when Marten told him the baby was not breathing after they had both fallen asleep. Becoming emotional, he said: “It’s a horrible thing to see your life destroyed before your very eyes.
“It’s our baby. She died. She’s gone. We have to live with this. Our names have been dragged through the mud like we are scum.”
Appealing to the jury, he said: “We will have to live with this forever. We punished ourselves day in, day out, for that for two years. What more do you want.”
Referring to his wife, Gordon said: “In regards to my beautiful, noble wife, who is nothing more than a passionate, strong individual, she has been nothing but kind and wonderful to me and the best thing that has ever happened to me in my life.”
Despite his and Marten’s attraction and love for one another, he said that their relationship had come with challenges and that “forces” had not agreed with their match and posed difficulties for them.
“It has culminated in this courtroom sitting in a dock with 12 jurors deciding our fate,” he said.
Gordon told jurors the couple had previously worked with social services and “believed in them”, but were left feeling that they had been “wronged” when their other children were taken away from them.
He said that people were surveying them and on one occasion, the couple were approached by a private investigator in a Pret a Manger coffee shop when they were living in London.
The Old Bailey has heard that the couple had wanted to avoid their fifth child being taken into care amid a high-profile police hunt for the missing baby.
The child’s body was discovered with rubbish inside a shopping bag in a disused shed near Brighton after the defendants were arrested.
Marten and Gordon, of no fixed address, have denied the gross negligence manslaughter of their daughter and causing or allowing her death between 4 January and 27 February 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.
