'Selfish' Constance Marten and Mark Gordon 'left girl's body in abandoned shed like she was rubbish'

A 'selfish' aristocrat and her partner left their baby 'like rubbish' in a shopping bag after she died while living off the grid, a court heard.

Constance Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, 49, are said to have concealed the birth of daughter Victoria after she became pregnant in early 2022.

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The pair then went on the run to avoid her being taken from them and lived in a tent in the middle winterheard Old Bailey.

Jurors were told Marten and Gordon had four other children who were in care.

Baby Victoria was later found dead in a shopping bag covered in rubbish in an abandoned shed, as if she had been “refuted”, it was said.

Opening the case today, prosecutor Tom Little KC said the case involved “the completely avoidable death of a young baby”.

He added: “A young girl who, we say, would still be alive if not for the reckless, extremely selfish, callous, cruel, arrogant and ultimately grossly negligent conduct of the two defendants on trial.

“They were the parents of that young girl. They put their relationship and their outlook on life before that little girl's life.

“Instead of acting on the obvious best interests of a vulnerable baby, a baby they should have cared for and cared for, they decided they knew best.

“They decided they knew better than anyone else. Whoever they were. They decided to ignore the advice they had previously received.

“And it was their selfish desire to keep their baby girl that led inexorably to that same baby's death.”

The court was told that Marten and Gordon chose to “deprive the baby of what he 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.

Mr Little said: “When the authorities started looking for them it became national headlines news almost exactly a year ago, intensified – so their desperate selfishness increased and so did the risks and dangers to that baby.

“This is what led to them camping in freezing and clearly dangerous conditions on the South Downs with inadequate clothing, equipment and food, and never sought any medical attention or assistance.

'And it was this grossly negligent and clearly dangerous behavior that caused the death of their infant daughter and led to them standing trial before you at the Old Bailey.'

The court was told the couple did not hand themselves in after baby Victoria died.

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.

Marten's father was a page of the late queen, while her grandmother was a goddaughter the Queen Mother.

The trial, which will take six weeks, continues.

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