The partner of wealthy aristocrat Constance Marten has described the prosecution case in their trial over the death of their baby as “like a script from a movie”.
Marten, 38, and Mark Gordon, 51, are on trial accused of the manslaughter by gross negligence of their baby daughter Victoria, who died in a tent on the South Downs in early 2023.
The couple went off grid in a bid to avoid their fifth child being taken into care, the Old Bailey has heard, and a high-profile manhunt was launched.
In his closing speech on Monday, Gordon, who is representing himself, told jurors: “The prosecution’s case is characterised, or simply put, as one of speculation.
“The prosecution would like you the jury to believe something that despite all the theatrics, it is just a show, an act.
“My speech will demonstrate that the whole prosecution in this case is like a script from a movie, indeed a fictional novel.
“You will observe where the prosecution has just made things up and filled in the blanks in support of the plot, the narrative, the theme of the story.”
The prosecution has 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 on an allotment in Brighton after the defendants were arrested.
Last week, prosecutor Tom Little KC said in his closing speech: “They exposed their baby to the cold, damp and windy conditions with wholly inadequate clothing inside that tent.”
He added: “It was simply too cold, she could not maintain her temperature and death was inevitable.”
But Gordon told the court: “The conditions in the tent were according to my evidence the right standard and posed no threat to Victoria. We are experienced campers.”
The defendant, who wore a light blue shirt and pale orange head covering in the witness box, told jurors he and Marten, whom he called his wife, had pitched a tent “in a sheltered area with branches of a fallen tree”.
“Its (the fallen tree’s) significance is added insultation and an effective wind barrier,” he told the court.
He showed jurors an image where he is wearing layered clothing, and said: “We had various items on our body hidden from view. These items as well as my wife’s excessive body fat … I am pointing that out to the jury as that is a relevant fact.”
The 51-year-old said: “It seems, by ignoring the facts which are all the time present, those who are actually responsible for triggering the events remain in the shadows. There are those who would like to alter the truth.
“There was no interim care order in place which gave the state custody or a right to start the great chase.”
He told the court he and his partner “didn’t even have time to process the bereavement” when their baby Victoria died.
In May, 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.
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.
