Constance Marten and Mark Gordon trial: Key evidence so far as first images shown of baby girl

First images shown of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon’s dark-haired baby girl

The tiny infant, named Victoria, was captured on camera wrapped in a blanket zipped inside…

The Independent

The tiny infant, named Victoria, was captured on camera wrapped in a blanket zipped inside Marten’s coat in CCTV footage played to the Old Bailey

Jurors have been shown the first glimpses of a dark-haired baby girl who died after a wealthy aristocrat and her partner spent weeks living off-grid in freezing conditions.

The prosecution claim the “reckless, utterly selfish and callous” conduct of Constance Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, 49, who kept their daughter secret and went on the run to stop her being taken into care, led to the death of the newborn.

The tiny infant, named Victoria, was captured on camera wrapped in a blanket zipped inside Marten’s coat in CCTV footage played to the Old Bailey in the second week of their trial for gross negligence manslaughter.

Marten, wearing a facemask with a scarf wrapped around her head, was seen cradling the newborn outside a shop as she unzipped a red padded jacket to re-position the baby in footage captured in East Ham, east London, on 7 January last year.

The court heard the couple concealed Marten’s pregnancy and travelled the country to evade the authorities driven by their “selfish” desire to keep the infant, after their four other children were taken into care.

A major police search was launched after they fled the scene of a car fire on the M61 near Manchester, leaving their possessions scattered at the side of the motorway and a placenta wrapped in a towel inside the burnt-out Peugeot 206.

The prosecution say they then spent huge sums of money travelling the country by taxi, keeping Victoria hidden inside Marten’s jacket, before settling off-grid in the South Downs, in East Sussex, where they spent seven weeks living in a tent in freezing conditions before the couple were arrested.

The child’s remains were found several days later in a disused shed, hidden in the bag and covered in rubbish “as if she was refusing”, the court was told.

Wealthy Constance Marten, 36, and her partner Mark Gordon, 49, were allegedly motivated by a ‘selfish’ desire to keep their daughter Victoria after four other children were taken into care (GMP/PA)

(PA Media)

Opening the case last week, Tom Little KC told the jury the parents carried their newborn around a Lidl carrier bag for much of her short life.

Marten, who claimed the child died after she fell asleep with her in her jacket, told police she continued to carry the body around in the shopping bag after the baby’s death in the hope of giving her a proper burial.

Mr Little said: “The young baby girl would still – we say – be alive if it was not for the reckless, utterly selfish, callous, cruel, arrogant and ultimately grossly negligent conduct of these two defendants who are on trial.

“They were the parents of that young baby girl. They put their relationship and their view of life before the life of a little baby girl.”

The prosecution alleges the newborn died from neglect as a result of exposure or hypothermia or as a result of co-sleeping, accusing the parents of negligence that was “truly exceptionally bad”…