Baby’s death ‘entirely avoidable’, aristocrat Constance Marten’s retrial told

Wealthy aristocrat Constance Marten and her partner caused the “entirely avoidable” death of their baby daughter while on the run from authorities, their retrial has heard.

Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, are accused of the manslaughter of their newborn daughter by gross negligence in early 2023.

Opening the Old Bailey retrial on Monday, prosecutor Tom Little KC said the case was about the “entirely avoidable death of a young baby”.

The defendants allegedly kept the birth of their daughter as “their little secret” after their four older children were taken into care.

On January 5 2023, they went on the run with the little girl after their car burst into flames on a motorway in Greater Manchester, jurors heard.

Having fled the scene, they travelled hundreds of miles across England in taxis at a cost of thousands of pounds, jurors were told.

They went from Harwich to Colchester in Essex and on to east London before making their way to the South Downs where they went “off grid” and slept in a “flimsy” tent, the court heard.

Mr Little told jurors that Marten came from a “very wealthy family” and had a trust fund so she could have bought whatever she needed.

But having dumped a buggy hours after purchasing it, the defendants transferred the baby to a Lidl bag for life where she spent some of her life, it was claimed.

Jurors heard the couple began sleeping in a tent on January 8 2023 and were next seen four days later at a Texaco garage where Marten bought snacks with cash. There was no sign of the baby.

Mr Little said: “You will have to consider if the baby had by now died of hypothermia, or had been smothered and suffocated in the obviously dangerous sleeping conditions in that tent, or whether she was still alive at this point but that her fate was sealed by the conduct of the defendants carrying her in a bag for life.”

After the baby died, the defendants continued to sleep rough and scavenge in bins for food while carrying the body in the same Lidl bag.

The child’s decomposed body was eventually found by police in a disused shed amid rubbish a few days after the defendants were detained in Brighton on February 27 2023.

In a police interview, Marten said the baby died after she fell asleep with her tucked under her coat.

She claimed the child had “ample clothes” when she and Gordon decided to take themselves out of society to “save her from the services” – which Mr Little said was a lie.

Gordon agreed with her account and claimed to police it was something “nobody could have ever have anticipated”.

But jurors were told the risk was obvious and the couple had been warned before of the danger of living in a tent and sleeping directly with a baby.

Mr Little told jurors: “They put their relationship and their views of life before the life of a little baby girl.

“Rather than act in the obvious best interests of a vulnerable baby and one that they should have cared for and looked after, they decided instead that they knew best.

“They decided to ignore the advice that they had previously been given. They decided that in the middle of winter and in obviously dangerous weather conditions they would deprive the baby of what it needed – warmth, shelter, protection and food and ultimately safety.

“They essentially went off-grid and lived in a tent with hardly any clothes, no means of keeping and remaining warm and dry and with scarcely any food.”

He said the defendants’ decision to camp on the South Downs raised the risk of hypothermia and suffocation.

It was their “grossly negligent and obviously dangerous conduct” that caused the death of the baby, jurors were told.

Mr Little added: “After the baby died, in January 2023, the defendants did not hand themselves in but instead remained off-grid, trying to hide for a number of weeks, leaving the body of their dead baby in a shopping bag covered in rubbish, which they carried around and then left in a disused shed.”

Jurors were told the defendants were convicted at an earlier trial of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.

The court was also told of the defendants’ history with social services, which led to a family court decision in February 2021 that their four other children should be adopted.

Mr Little said the decision was “lawful and proper” and did not concern jurors in the retrial.

However, the background provided evidence of Marten’s “lies and deceptions” and detailed warnings the defendants were given of the risks of their conduct before 2023, the court heard.

The defendants, of no fixed address, have denied manslaughter and a second charge of causing or allowing the death of a child between January 4 and February 27 2023.

Earlier, jurors were told that Gordon was not in the dock with Marten but that he might join the proceedings later by video link.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC warned jurors against doing any research about the case or “jumping to any conclusions” before hearing all the evidence.

The Old Bailey retrial is expected to last for up to eight weeks.