A wealthy aristocrat and her partner who “recklessly” went on the run to stop their baby being taken into care took the newborn off-grid in winter despite an “obvious” risk of hypothermia, their retrial has heard.
A jury at the Old Bailey heard Constance Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, deprived their baby daughter of “warmth, shelter protection, food and ultimately one word – safety” during her short life, before leaving her body in a bag-for-life to decompose.
The parents deny gross negligence manslaughter and causing or allowing the death of the infant, whose birth they concealed after their four other children were removed from their care.
The court heard Ms Marten gave birth in secret at a holiday cottage in Northumberland and travelled the country by taxi, moving from location to location amid a high-profile manhunt for the missing parents, before settling off-grid in the South Downs in January 2023.
Opening the prosecution’s case at a retrial on Monday, Tom Little KC described Ms Marten as a “trust fund child” who has “perfected lying to an art form”.
He alleged the parents at times used a red Lidl bag-for-life to carry the newborn as they fled the authorities before her eventual death due to hypothermia or “grossly negligent co-sleeping”.
“It would have been plain to the defendants, you must have thought, that this was an utterly inappropriate way to care for any child, let alone their child,” adding the infant, named on the indictment as Baby A, only had a baby grow and no hat in the wintry conditions.
By the time they settled in the South Downs on 8 January 2023 in a “thin and flimsy” tent they were “sopping wet”, he said.
Mr Little told the jury: “They decided to and then started camping in relatively cold and obviously dangerous conditions on the South Downs with (as I have said) totally insufficient and inadequate clothing and equipment for the baby and never once seeking any help or assistance.
“The weather got colder after a few days but even at the outset the risk of hypothermia was obvious. The need to try to keep warm in wet and damp and cold conditions in a small, thin and flimsy tent also created obvious suffocation risks both with items and with themselves. So too, as I have said, the risk and reality of hypothermia.
“It was this grossly negligent and obviously dangerous conduct that caused the death of their baby daughter.”
He explained to the jury that Ms Marten has a trust fund, having grown up in a very wealthy family.
“She had potential access to really as much money as she would have wanted if she had chosen to do the right thing,” the prosecutor added. “Not taken bad decision after bad decision.”
He alleged that even after the baby girl died, the parents left her remains in a rubbish-filled carrier bag and remained on the run.
“After the baby had died the defendants didn’t hand themselves in immediately or seek any medical assistance immediately, as you might have expected, if this was some form of accident,” he said.
“What did they do instead? They 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 whilst that baby decomposed.”
He claimed the parents decided “that they knew best, they knew better than anyone else” and “put their relationship and their views of life before the life of that little baby girl”.
When the couple were finally arrested in Brighton on 27 February 2023, they smelled unpleasant and Ms Marten had put furniture stuffing inside her jacket to keep warm.
“It is plain, we say, that the defendants had been living in conditions for weeks in which they were unable to provide adequate care for themselves – let alone their baby child,” Mr Little said, adding that the dangers of rough sleeping are well known.
In police interview neither parent would reveal where the infant was until officers discovered her remains in the bag-for-life in a disused allotment shed on 1 March. After the baby was found, Ms Marten claimed she had fallen asleep with the newborn zipped inside her jacket.
The prosecutor accused Ms Marten of telling a “series of lies and fibs” in police interview as she claimed they had more clothes for the baby, alleging the infant had “only the flimsy onesie on her back”.
The court heard Ms Marten and Mr Gordon gave false names at hospital during the birth of their first child as she told midwives her name was Isabella O’Brien and she was raised in the travelling community.
“No she hadn’t, she had been raised with a silver spoon – she’s a trust fund child,” Mr Little added.
“Going through the entirety of labour putting on a fake Irish accent – what does that tell you about manipulation? What does that tell you about dishonesty? You may say that someone who has done that has perfected lying to an art form.”
That child and three others were eventually taken into care following a “lawful and proper decision” by a family court judge, Mr Little added.
Ms Marten and Mr Gordon both deny charges of gross negligence manslaughter of Baby A and causing or allowing the infant’s death.
Last year, they were convicted of concealing the birth of the child and perverting the course of justice in a previous trial.
The mother appeared in the dock wearing a white top, black jacket and blue scarf for the retrial on Monday. Jurors were told Gordon, who was not in court, might join the proceedings later by video link.
The retrial continues.
