Constance Marten posed as journalist as she hid tragic newborn baby, court told

Aristocrat Constance Marten posed as a freelance journalist called Caroline as she concealed her tragic newborn baby, a court has heard.

Marten, 37, and her partner Mark Gordon, 50, are on trial at the Old Bailey over the death of baby Victoria while on the run from authorities in January 2023.

The baby was thought to have been born at a Cumbria cottage in late December 2022, and the couple allegedly kept her secret to prevent her from being taken into care – as their four other children had been.

On Wednesday, jurors heard a statement from hotel receptionist Cathy Lloyd, who interacted with Marten when she checked into the Ibis Hotel at Lymm Services in Warrington at 4am on January 4 2023.

In her statement, Ms Lloyd said Marten had given her name as Caroline Marten and told her she was a freelance journalist.

She said the defendant had seemed “extremely well-spoken” and “genuine”, but “very tired”.

The witness said: “Constance made conversation with me and was very sweet and conversational.

“She told me she was very tired after driving ‘a hell of a long way’. She told me she had lost her credit card and if she could pay cash. She told me she lived in Hackney and just wanted to go home.”

Having told her she was a freelance journalist, Marten chatted with Ms Lloyd about publicity for her brother who was in a play, jurors heard.

Ms Lloyd said in her statement that she handed over her email address and phone number, but never heard back from Marten.

She told how Gordon entered reception shortly after Marten had gone to her room.

He appeared to be “very moody” and did not reply to her inquiry about whether he had checked in, which she found “unnerving”, jurors heard.

She said Marten had seemed “so normal” and “really sweet” as they chatted again about her brother’s play, according to her statement read by prosecutor Joel Smith KC.

Ms Lloyd said: “I really thought she was a journalist. At no time did I see Constance and Mark together. At no point did I see a baby with either of them.

“I definitely did not see a baby or any baby items, None of their body language indicated they had a baby with them.”

The prosecution has alleged that the couple failed to provide for their baby properly and carried her in a shopping bag-for-life or underneath Marten’s coat during her short life.

Jurors have heard that Marten was a wealthy woman with access to funds to buy whatever was needed.

The day before Marten and Gordon checked into the Ibis Hotel, she had received £3,400 into her bank account from a trust fund, the court was told.

On January 5 2023, the couple abandoned their belongings on the M61 motorway near Bolton, Greater Manchester, after their Peugeot car burst into flames.

Ken Hudson filmed the fire on the motorway and called emergency services at 6.19pm.

He told jurors that he saw a female passenger holding a bundle with a baby’s head with wispy hair showing.

Giving evidence in court, Mr Hudson said he had asked her “is the baby alright”, and she replied: “She’s fine.”

He touched the baby’s head and said “God bless”, he said.

Mr Hudson explained: “I’m a Christian man, have been all my life…It’s what I’ve always done.”

He also spoke to a male who got out of the driver’s side of the blazing car on the hard shoulder, the court heard.

Mr Hudson told jurors: “I asked him where he was going and he was making some motions away from me to my right and he just said ‘up there’ over the barrier.”

On the conditions that night, he said: “It was cold. It was a typical January at six o’clock at night as you would expect, a winter’s evening.”

Police launched a search for the missing baby after a placenta was found in the wreckage.

The defendants travelled across England in taxis and ended up on the South Downs where the baby died while they lived “off grid” in a tent.

The prosecution has alleged that baby Victoria died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping in the “flimsy” tent, despite past warnings.

The child’s body was discovered with rubbish inside a shopping bag-for-life in a disused shed near Brighton following the defendants’ arrests on February 27 2023.

Marten and Gordon, of no fixed address, have denied the gross negligence manslaughter of their daughter Victoria 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 Old Bailey retrial continues.