The partner of wealthy aristocrat Constance Marten has denied responsibility for the death of their baby, telling jurors: “There are no laws in regard to how you should raise your children.”
Mark Gordon, 51, said he and Marten, 38, had been “dehumanised” and “vilified” during their Old Bailey retrial for the manslaughter of their daughter Victoria.
The court has heard how Victoria died after the defendants went off grid and slept in a tent on the South Downs to avoid Victoria being taken into care amid a high-profile police search in January 2023.
Victoria’s badly decomposed body was found in a shopping bag containing rubbish inside a disused shed near Brighton following her parents’ arrest.
Gordon said the “tragic incident” happened after he and Marten had been “hounded and traumatised” and already lost their four other children to the care system.
Representing himself on Tuesday, Gordon dismissed the prosecution case against them as a “fantasy”.
He said: “On the presumption of innocence, they have not proven the baby did not pass in the way we said. I say the prosecution just does not add up.”
The prosecution has claimed Victoria was likely to have died from hypothermia in cold conditions in the tent or was smothered.
Gordon denied it, telling jurors that at the time they were in a state of “crisis” and had exercised “parental judgment”.
“It may not be ideal. If the baby was left outside in cold conditions then that would be a no-brainer,” he said.
Gordon denied conditions were “damp and wet” in the tent and insisted the baby was always kept “skin to skin”.
He went on: “We would have ensured she was protected at all times in a microclimate.
“I say the baby passed due to unintended circumstances. I say the parents had a difficult time and there is an aspect of mental challenge going on here. Is the solution to send them to a cell?”
The defendant told jurors that the baby died in the tent while both she and Marten were asleep but insisted there was “no clear evidence” it was due to co-sleeping.
He told jurors: “We were prepared to sacrifice everything for this baby. It should not have happened and it was not against the law to spend time with this baby. A fundamental human right to a family.
“The parents’ judgment is paramount. How many parents would be in the dock if you applied this same standard which I say is being applied to us?”
Gordon, who was convicted of raping a woman in the United States when he was aged 14, told jurors he should be judged for who he is now, saying: “There is always two sides to every coin.”
He said there was “no way around” his criminal convictions, but pointed out “racial challenges” in the US system.
Gordon added: “What happened when I was a child is questionable but that was many, many years ago.”
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.
