Constance Marten's baby 'died after runaway aristocrat fell asleep on her' in 'tragic accident', defence claims
11 March 2025, 14:20
Runaway aristocrat Constance Marten killed her baby accidentally by falling asleep while hiding in a tent on the South Downs, her retrial has heard.
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Marten and her partner Mark Gordon are on trial for the gross negligence manslaughter of their daughter Victoria.
The couple kept the birth of their fifth child secret and went on the run on January 5 2023 after their four other children were taken into care, the Old Bailey was told.
When their car burst into flames on a motorway near Bolton, they abandoned their belongings and travelled by taxi to Essex and London and on to the South Downs where they slept with the young girl in a flimsy tent, jurors heard.
Having carried the child in a Lidl bag during her short life, the baby was abandoned amid rubbish in the same bag after she died, it is alleged.
Following a police search, her body was found in a disused shed near Brighton following the couple's arrest on February 27 2023.
The prosecution has alleged the couple's actions - by exposing their baby to extreme cold in a tent - were grossly negligent and Victoria could have died from hypothermia or been smothered and suffocated.
On Tuesday, Marten's lawyer Francis Fitzgibbon KC told jurors that baby Victoria had been born in a cottage in Cumbria on Christmas Eve 2022 before her parents went on the run because they did not want her to be taken into care.
He told jurors: "By January 8, Ms Marten was stressed and exhausted. They went temporarily into hiding while deciding what to do next. Ms Marten, exhausted, fell asleep with her baby after breastfeeding. The consequence was, the baby died.
"We say this was not a case of hypothermia. We say, death was caused by Ms Marten falling asleep and compromising the baby's breathing and we say that is a tragic accident, something that could happen anywhere where an exhausted breastfeeding mother may fall asleep on her newborn baby.
"And then consumed by grief, still wishing to avoid the world, her existence was reduced to scavenging for food and living in appalling conditions and she was unwilling to let go of the remains of the baby despite the fact she died.
"What happened, was say, is not a crime but a terrible tragic accident."
On behalf of Gordon, John Femi-Ola KC told jurors that baby Victoria was "well cared for, well loved and kept warm close to her mother".
He said: "The fact that when she was found she was in a onesie is not conclusive that is the only item of clothing she had."
And he disputed the baby was ever carried in a bag-for-life before she died, adding: "You will need to consider shock and grief after Victoria's death. They neglected themselves for weeks thereafter, but that is not an indication of how they cared for their child."
Mr Femi-Ola said that "co-sleeping" with a baby was "not a crime", and that the cause of Victoria's death remained "unascertained".
Earlier, prosecutor Tom Little KC asserted there were two possible ways the baby died - by exposure to the extreme cold or by smothering while co-sleeping while her parents.
He told jurors that the conditions the defendants lived in with their baby were "utterly reckless, utterly dangerous".
The background of social services' involvement with the family was important because the defendants had been warned "time and again" of the dangers, including of sleeping in a tent with a young child, he said.
Mr Little added: "They exposed her to the cold. They exposed her to the damp in winter conditions and they did so with woefully inadequate clothing.
"Any child that becomes hypothermic in those conditions, we say, must amount to a breach of duty of care. If death was caused by smothering or suffocation, one of the reasons for that must have been conditions in that tent.
"The second defendant (Marten) fell asleep with the baby underneath her jacket zipped up in that tent. If that is what occurred, it represents a breach of that duty of care by the parents because they were in that tent together.
"We say the risk of death by hypothermia or suffocation was obvious, but also it was a serious risk of death."
The prosecutor argued that the defendants' failure to report the child's death was an attempt to "hide potential evidence and cause of death".
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 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.
