Aristocrat Constance Marten and her partner responsible for death of baby they carried in 'bag for life', retrial hears

10 March 2025, 15:57

Aristocrat Constance Marten and her partner are responsible for the “entirely avoidable” death of their baby daughter, the couple’s retrial heard today.

Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, are accused of the manslaughter of their baby daughter while on the run from authorities in early 2023.

Speaking at the Old Bailey retrial on Monday, prosecutor Tom Little KC said the couple treated the newborn baby as “their little secret” after their four older children were taken into care.

The pair fled from authorities on January 5, 2023 after their car burst into flames on a motorway in Manchester, jurors were told.

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They allegedly travelled for hundreds of miles, on foot and in taxis, spending thousands of pounds in the process.

Travelling from Harwich to Colchester, Essex the couple attempted to go “off grid” staying in a “flimsy tent” as they continued to flee police, the court heard.

Mr Little told the jurors Marten came from an extremely wealthy family and had a trust fund that would have allowed her to pay for anything she or her baby needed.

But having dumped a buggy hours after purchasing it, the defendants transferred the baby to a Lidl shopping bag where she spent some of her life, it is alleged.

Jurors heard the couple began sleeping in a tent on January 8 2023 and were next seen four days later at a Texaco garage where Marten bought snacks with cash. There was no sign of the baby.

Mr Little said: "You will have to consider if the baby had by now died of hypothermia, or had been smothered and suffocated in the obviously dangerous sleeping conditions in that tent, or whether she was still alive at this point but that her fate was sealed by the conduct of the defendants carrying her in a bag for life."

The couple, continuing to sleep rough and scavenge bins for food, kept the baby’s remains in the Lidl bag for some time after its death, Mr Little said.

The couple were eventually detained on February 27, 2023, in Brighton.

Several days later, police found the baby’s decomposed body.

Mr Little told jurors: "They put their relationship and their views of life before the life of a little baby girl.

"Rather than act in the obvious best interests of a vulnerable baby and one that they should have cared for and looked after, they decided instead that they knew best.

"They decided to ignore the advice that they had previously been given. They decided that in the middle of winter and in obviously dangerous weather conditions they would deprive the baby of what it needed - warmth, shelter, protection and food and ultimately safety.

"They essentially went off-grid and lived in a tent with hardly any clothes, no means of keeping and remaining warm and dry and with scarcely any food.”

Mr Little accused the couple of risking the baby catching hypothermia and suffocating by camping on the South Downs.

It was their "grossly negligent and obviously dangerous conduct" that caused the death of the baby, jurors were told.

Mr Little added: "After the baby died, in January 2023, the defendants did not hand themselves in but instead 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, which they carried around and then left in a disused shed."

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.

Earlier, jurors were told that Gordon was not in the dock with Marten but that he might join the proceedings later by video link.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC warned jurors against doing any research about the case or "jumping to any conclusions" before hearing all the evidence.

The Old Bailey retrial is expected to last for up to eight weeks.