Runaway aristocrat Constance Marten was seen buying gasoline to 'cremate newborn baby she killed after going off-grid'

THIS is the moment a runaway aristocrat bought a bottle of petrol to cremate the baby she killed, a court heard.

Constance Marten, 36, and her partner Mark Gordon, 49, are accused of going on the run with baby Victoria to prevent her from being taken away.

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The couple the birth hidden in 2022 it then went “off-grid” – living in a “thin and flimsy” tent in the middle of nature winterjurors heard.

Victoria, who spent “much of her life” in one Lidl bag for life, was later found dead in an abandoned shed as if she were “garbage”.

Jurors were shown images of Marten filling a bottle of petrol on January 12 last year.

She also bought three packs of Jacob's Mini Cheddars from the Texaco garage and a newspaper.

Marten reportedly planned to cremate the baby after discovering her dead in her coat, but changed his mind.

A 54-day hunt for the pair was launched after their burning car was discovered on the M61 motorway in Greater Manchester on January 5.

Officers found the placenta wrapped in a towel, “new baby” diapers and newborn clothes, as well as “burner phones,” it is said.

a missing personThe company's investigation was launched, becoming “bigger and bigger news” as time went on, jurors were told.

But instead of reaching out PoliceMarten and Gordon are said to have instead tried to conceal their whereabouts out of fear that Victoria would be taken into care like their other four children.

The couple is said to have traveled to the other side England – including spending £400 on a taxi from Liverpool to Essex with the help of the “rich” Marten trust fund.

Marten, whose family lived on the Crichel House estate in Dorset, received almost £19,000 in payments into her account from the trust while on the run.

Her father was a page to the late queen, while her grandmother was a goddaughter the Queen Mother.

Despite this, 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 clearly dangerous weather circumstances”, the pair went “essentially off-grid”.

Jurors heard they lived in a tent with barely any clothes and no means to stay warm and dry.

With “barely” food, Marten and Gordon remained on the run, failing to seek medical attention or even register the birth as they moved from “location to location”, it was said.

Witness Sarah Hidden told the story court last January she heard a baby crying in the middle of the night for two consecutive nights.

Days later she was walking her dog on a coastal path when she thought she saw the couple from the shore news.

Mrs Hidden said: “A few nights before I saw the couple there was the sound of a baby crying. I was sleeping but the crying woke me up.”

The first night it happened, there was a storm and it was windy and rainy, she said.

The witness added: 'I know people take babies out to get them sleep but I don't think they would do it in a storm.”

The next one During the night she heard a baby crying again and it was also raining, the court was told.

Mrs Hidden said: “It was definitely a young baby crying.

“It's a different sound than an older baby crying, more constant, a little higher pitched and more urgent.”

Marten and Gordon deny manslaughter by gross negligence, concealment of the birth of a child, cruelty to a person under 16 and perverting the course of justice.

They also deny causing or permitting the death of a child between January 4 and February 27 last year, an alternative charge to manslaughter.

The process continues.

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