'KILLER' MUM
Aristocrat Constance Marten claims ‘I did nothing but show her love’ after ‘killing baby daughter when she went on run’
Mum and lover accused of depriving newborn of basic care before she was found dead in Lidl bag
A RUNAWAY aristocrat accused of killing her newborn baby today told jurors: "I did nothing but show her love".
Constance Marten, 36, and partner Mark Gordon, 49, allegedly evaded cops for 54 days with baby Victoria after hiding her birth.
7
7
7
7
The pair went "off-grid" - living in a "thin and flimsy" tent in the middle of winter - as they feared the tot would be taken away from them like their other children, jurors heard.
Victoria, who spent "much of her life" in a Lidl bag for life, was later discovered dead inside an abandoned shed like she was "refuse".
Giving evidence today, Marten claimed she gave her daughter "the best any mother would" despite her living conditions.
When asked by defence barrister Francis FitzGibbon KC if she did anything to "harm" baby Victoria, she said: "Absolutely not."
Read more news
The mum was also asked if she did anything "cruel" to the newborn, causing her to reply: "No. I did nothing but show her love."
Marten claimed she did not expose her baby to cold or allow her to get too hot so far as she was aware.
She told the Old Bailey Victoria died on January 9 last year, saying: "I do not think it is anything I will ever move on from."
Marten also said she felt "guilty", adding: "I think initially it was disbelief, shock, intense grief."
Most read in The Sun
The aristocrat's father was a page to the late Queen, while her grandmother was a goddaughter to the Queen Mother.
Her family lived on the Dorset estate Crichel House and she allegedly received nearly £19,000 in payments into her account from a trust fund while on the run.
Baby Victoria seen for first time before she was 'killed by aristocrat mum Constance Marten & dad as they evaded police'
Speaking today, Marten told how she came from a wealthy family and was privately educated before studying Arabic at Leeds University.
She went on to travel in Egypt, India, Nepal, Nigeria, Uganda and South America and worked for Al Jazeera - the Middle Eastern news station.
Marten met Gordon in 2014 in an shop selling incense and they had a marriage ceremony in Peru two years later, although it was not legally binding.
She said Gordon did not meet her relatives as the relationship with her family had "broken down" and there was a "long history of issues".
Jurors were told how her trust fund was "cut off overnight" when she was heavily pregnant with her first child but by the time of her second, she was being given around £2,000 a month.
She also became tearful when asked f she had ever harmed any of her five children.
Marten said: "Absolutely not. Mark and I love our kids more than anything in the world so I'm pretty angry about the fact they had to go through this process. It's not good enough."
Timeline of baby 'killing' - how couple evaded cops
CONSTANCE Marten and Mark Gordon allegedly sparked a 54-day manhunt across the UK after vanishing with their baby Victoria.
Here's how the pair's journey began...
December 20, 2022
Marten and Gordon booked into a holiday cottage in Northumberland, with the rental due to end on Boxing Day. The owner told jurors he found the property in "something of a state" on December 28.
December 24, 2022
The couple claim their baby daughter was born this day but this has been disputed by prosecutors.
December 28, 2022
Their Suzuki broke down on the M18 motorway so a recovery driver took them to a nearby Sainsbury's. There was allegedly no sign of the baby but the back and side windows of the car had been blocked by clothing.
January 4, 2023
Marten and Gordon checked into the Ibis hotel at the Lymm Services in Cheshire then later the AC Hotel in Manchester.
January 5, 2023
The couple's Peugeot 206 catches fire on the M61 motorway in Greater Manchester. Police launch an urgent probe after finding placenta, burner phones and Marten's passport, jurors were told.
She and Gordon are taken to a Morrisons store in Bolton by a member of the public before being seen on CCTV at the nearby Bolton Interchange station.
The couple allegedly use Marten's trust for a taxi to Liverpool, then a £400 cab to Harwich in Essex.
Cab driver Ali Yaryar, who picked the couple up from Liverpool, told the court: "I think the baby had no clothes".
January 6, 2023
The couple arrive in Harwich and check into a Premier Inn at around 3am. They later move to the Fryatt Hotel, where they paid in cash, it was said.
January 7, 2023
Marten and Gordon travel by taxi to Colchester then to East Ham in London. The couple allegedly buy a buggy from Argos then grab another cab to Whitechapel.
They ate in a Brick Lane restaurant then dump the new buggy - choosing instead to keep Victoria in a Lidl bag, jurors heard.
January 8, 2023
The couple spend £475 on a taxi from Hornsey to Newhaven in East Sussex and walk to the South Downs National Park. Marten buys snacks and petrol with cash but there was no sign of the baby, it is said.
January 9, 2023
Both Marten and Gordon claim baby Victoria died on this day - making her 16 days old, the court was told. It is said there is no way of knowing this for sure.
January 16, 2023
Marten and Gordon are seen setting up a tent in Stanmer Park Nature Reserve in the South Downs despite the cold weather.
February 16/17, 2023
The couple are spotted near Hollingbury Golf Course in rural Sussex allegedly pushing a buggy with no baby. Their tent is later seen in Coldean Lane in Brighton
A driver sees the pair walking towards Stanmer Park with something under Marten's puffer jacket, the court heard.
February 19, 2023
Gordon and Marten are allegedly seen in their tent in the park with a very young baby with a "wobbly" head. Jurors told the baby had no socks, blanket or hat on.
February 27, 2023
The couple are arrested in Hollingbury Place in Brighton but do not reveal Victoria's location at first, it is said.
March 1, 2023
Tragic Victoria is found dead in a Lidl bag covered in rubbish inside a disused shed "like refuse", the court is told.
A manhunt was launched for the pair after their burning car was discovered on the M61 motorway in Greater Manchester on January 5.
Officers found placenta wrapped in a towel, "new baby" nappies and newborn clothing, as well as "burner phones", it is said.
But instead of contacting police, Marten and Gordon allegedly instead tried to hide their whereabouts over fears Victoria would be taken into care like their four other children.
Jurors were told the couple chose to "deprive the baby of what she needed" - including "warmth, shelter and food and ultimately safety".
In the middle of a "cold winter and in cruel and obviously dangerous weather conditions", the pair "essentially went off-grid".
Jurors heard they lived in a tent with barely any clothes and no means of keeping warm and dry.
With "scarcely" any food, Marten and Gordon remained on the run, failed to seek medical assistance or even register the birth as they moved from "location to the location", it was said.
The couple deny manslaughter by gross negligence, concealment of the birth of a child, cruelty to a person under 16 and perverting the course of justice.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
They also deny causing or allowing the death of a child, an alternative charge to manslaughter, between 4 January and 27 February last year.
7
7
7
Topics