Tent like one used by Constance Marten shown to jury at Old Bailey trial
Marten and Mark Gordon are accused of the manslaughter of a baby who died after they went off grid and slept in a tent in early 2023.
Jurors have taken a first-hand look at a tent and sleeping bags like the ones used by aristocrat Constance Marten and her partner as they fled authorities with their newborn daughter.
Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, are accused of the manslaughter of baby Victoria who died after they went off-grid and slept in a tent on the South Downs in early 2023.
On Monday, a blue tent had been set up in the Old Bailey courtroom, which was then cleared so the jury could inspect the items that are identical to the ones used by the couple.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC said he was clearing the courtroom so the jury could have “privacy,” telling them: “We will all depart so you can have a look at it now.”
Marten and Gordon kept the birth of their fifth child secret after four other children were taken into care, the Old Bailey has heard.
On January 5 2023, the couple abandoned their belongings and fled after their Peugeot car burst into flames on the M61 near Bolton, Greater Manchester.
Police launched a search for the missing baby after a placenta was found in the wreckage of the car.
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 court has heard.
The prosecution has alleged that 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 after the defendants were arrested on February 27 2023.
Earlier on Monday, the jury heard from taxi driver Hassan Guzel who drove the couple from Haringey, north west London, to Newhaven, East Sussex, in the early hours of 8 January 2023.
Mr Guzel dropped them off in Newhaven at 4.56am and said he was concerned about what they were going to do next.
He recalled it was quiet with not a single other car on the road, adding: “I thought to myself, if they had a baby what are they doing in the middle of the night here?”
The driver had been booked to take them to Portsmouth but he was asked to change direction.
The couple did not mention they had a child with them and it was only after Mr Guzel heard what he thought was a kitten’s meow that he noticed the female passenger had a baby at her chest.
In a statement to the court, Mr Guzel said that part way through the three-hour trip he heard a faint noise. He looked and saw the zip on the woman’s jacket had been lowered and she had a baby at her chest, but it was not feeding.
Mr Guzel said: “I know the noise a baby makes and this is the noise that a baby makes when it is looking for attention.”
After seeing the baby, the driver also said: “I told myself ‘why did they not tell me about this?'”
Mr Guzel dropped them off and said he was concerned about what they were going to do next.
He recalled it was quiet with not a single other car on the road, adding: “I thought to myself, if they had a baby what are they doing in the middle of the night here?”
It was windy and rainy that day and by 6.30am that morning, the couple were heading off into the countryside, the jury heard.
Prosecutor Joel Smith KC said: “It appears that from that moment on they are living in the countryside in a tent.”
Sarah Hidden, of Seaford, East Sussex, recalled a series of incidents some time between January 16 and 27 2023, including two nights when she heard a baby crying, seeing a couple on a path and also two sightings of a tent as she walked her dog.
She told the court she was woken one night by the sound of a baby crying as she slept at home.
The sound lasted for about 30 minutes and she thought it was a “younger baby” as it was “high pitched, urgent and quicker between breaths”.
Mrs Hidden said she heard the sound two nights in a row and it was being carried on the wind from the west of where she lived from an area which did not have any residential properties.
The witness, who did not leave her home after hearing the baby crying, rejected the idea it was the sound of foxes.
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.
