Constance Marten trial resumes without defendants as court told of abandoned cat
Marten and Mark Gordon are accused of the manslaughter of a baby who died after they went off grid and slept in a tent in early 2023.
Aristocrat Constance Marten and her partner were absent from their retrial as jurors heard how they abandoned a live cat in a box as they fled authorities with their newborn daughter.
Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, are accused of the manslaughter of baby Victoria who died after they went off grid and slept in a tent on the South Downs in early 2023.
On the fourth day of their Old Bailey trial, neither defendant attended court as the prosecution listed belongings abandoned after their car burst into flames on the M61 near Bolton.
Judge Mark Lucraft KC told jurors: “You will notice that neither of the defendants are at the back of the court today.
“They are not here. Please do not draw any conclusions from that. We are going to continue in their absence.”
The court heard how the defendants had fled the scene of the car fire with baby Victoria before police and firefighters arrived on the evening of January 5 2023.
Prosecutor Joel Smith KC said it was a “watershed” moment as the discovery of a placenta wrapped in a towel in the car and Marten’s passport first alerted police of the existence of baby Victoria.
Other items strewn around the area included a live cat in a box, a wig, a blue camo romper suit, babygrows, a head massager, blankets, dummies and mittens, assorted clothes, nappies, sanitary towels, paperwork, a pink dressing gown and 38 mobile phones.
Mr Smith questioned Detective Constable Martha Bourne about what was recovered near the Peugeot car and on a nearby playing field.
He said: “Was a live cat found in a cat box on the playing field with the other material.”
Ms Bourne replied: “Yes, that’s correct.”
Jurors were told that the defendants were given a lift by a member of the public to Bolton where they were captured on CCTV at the bus interchange before taking a taxi to Liverpool.
Jurors were shown CCTV of the couple in Bolton, with Marten appearing to hold the baby under her coat.
From Liverpool, the couple travelled by taxi to Harwich in Essex, where they checked into a Premier Inn in the early hours of January 6.
At 1pm, Greater Manchester Police issued an alert for the missing couple and newborn baby, with the defendants’ photographs.
The next day, Ryan Gosling was walking his dog in Harwich when he spotted a couple by a flower planter and heard a baby crying.
Giving evidence, he said Marten was cradling the child in her arms wrapped in a towel.
He told jurors she seemed gaunt, pale and unkempt, while Gordon was “quite well presented”.
When he got home he told his wife that he had “definitely” seen the couple from the news and called the police “the same minute”.
The prosecution has alleged that the couple failed to provide adequate clothes for their baby as they travelled across England and camped on the South Coast, amid a high-profile police search.
Baby Victoria’s decomposed body was found in a disused shed inside a shopping bag with rubbish after the defendants were arrested in Brighton on February 27 2023.
Marten and Gordon, of no fixed address, have denied the gross negligence manslaughter of their daughter and causing or allowing her death between January 4 and February 27 2023.
Jurors have been told the defendants were convicted at an earlier trial of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.
The Old Bailey retrial continues.
