Aristocrat Constance Marten says she did not report her baby’s death and hand herself in to police over fears she would be branded an “evil mother” and a “murderess”, the Old Bailey has heard.
Marten, 37, and her partner Mark Gordon, 50, are accused of killing their newborn baby daughter Victoria when they went “off grid” in early 2023, in a bid to avoid her being taken into care.
Marten, whose aristocratic family have ties to royalty, and Gordon were at the centre of a nationwide manhunt when they disappeared, ultimately deciding to sleep in a tent on the South Downs to avoid being caught.
Their other four children had already been taken from them and put into alternative care, which Marten has characterised to the jury as being “stolen by the State”.
Giving evidence on Friday, Marten said she refused to comment in police interview because officers were “treating us like criminals”, and she did not want detectives to find her baby’s body.
“I thought they were never going to believe me, they were trying to make this situation something nefarious”, she said.
“I felt in the whole thing we were made out to be dangerous individuals that had to be found, I didn’t trust the police in doing an investigation.
“I was hoping they wouldn’t find the body, I didn’t trust the police…I thought they would make it into something it’s not.”
Earlier, Marten tearfully told jurors how she says baby Victoria died in her arms as she was sleeping on January 9, 2023.
“She was on my lap, her head was on one of my forearms, I had flopped forward, my forehead was on the floor of the tent”, she said.
“I fed her and then I burped her and she usually liked to be held for a while. She liked to be held close to us.
“I was holding her on my lap and tapping her to help her sleep and I just woke up in that position.”
Marten said she “knew something was wrong” and “felt it in my spirit”.
“I woke up and I just felt something was wrong. I brought her out of my jacket and she was completely limp”, she said.
“I just knew she wasn’t alive and I felt responsible because I was holding her so my assumption was that I had fallen asleep on her.”
Prosecutors say Marten and Gordon, who are jointly charged with manslaughter and causing or allowing the death of a child, were responsible for Victoria’s death by their actions while on the run.
It is said the baby, who was born in late December 2022, was inadequately clothed in a babygrow while they were moving around the country, they got soaking wet before going to stay in the “flimsy” tent on the South Downs in freezing cold conditions, and the couple had limited access to food and warmth.
It is alleged Victoria died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping with Marten in the tent.
The child’s body was discovered with rubbish inside a shopping bag in a disused shed near Brighton, days after the defendants were arrested on February 27 2023.
Marten insisted nothing could have been done to save her daughter, and in the aftermath she felt “panic” and considered whether they could “somehow hide her”.
On January 12, Marten and Gordon went to a Texaco garage where they filled a glass bottle with petrol with the idea of cremating Victoria’s body.
Asked if she reported Victoria’s death, Marten said: “At that stage no I was just… in the movies, I don’t know, accidentally someone dies they panic and they think, oh my gosh… I just thought they were going to say I was some evil mother, a murderess, that sort of thing.”
In the course of her evidence, Marten complained about “extreme violence” against Gordon by police when they were ultimately arrested and said she herself was strip-searched before being interviewed.
“They have handled this case appallingly”, she told the court. “I was terrified, I found the arrest pretty traumatic.”
Marten and Gordon, who have been a couple since 2016, have already been convicted of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.
They deny gross negligence manslaughter and causing or allowing her death between January 4 and February 27 2023. The trial continues.
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