Constance Marten viewed CCTV of baby Victoria’s last days in court. She and Mark Gordon deny manslaughter in the ongoing retrial.
Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, face charges of manslaughter. Baby Victoria died in early 2023. The couple lived off-grid in a tent on the South Downs.
Marten missed the prior court date but attended the one in London today. It is being held at the Old Bailey. The last CCTV footage of Victoria played.
Marten watched intently from the dock as the screen showed her child. The baby sat in a buggy in a kebab shop. This happened January 7, 2023.
Victoria wore a white babygrow with a brown design. A prosecutor spoke about the child’s clothing, noting she had no hat, coat, or gloves.
Detective Constable Martha Bourne, giving evidence in court, agreed. Both Marten and Gordon wore coats. Their faces were covered by masks and hoods too.
Gordon bought the buggy at Argos. They left the buggy behind before leaving London. They then headed to the south coast, jurors learned. Investigators found a similar buggy with a red hood and muff. They showed this to the jurors.
It is claimed Marten carried the child under her coat. She sometimes put Victoria in a Lidl bag. The defendants deny these claims.
Nichola Hutton noticed Marten in East Ham on a bus. Marten stood outside a shop, and Hutton thought she might be homeless. Mental health issues were also considered.
Hutton said in a statement to the court that she recognized Marten from a news story. Hutton thought she hid something in her coat. At first, she suspected stolen goods or perhaps a pet. “It could have been a baby,” Hutton said later.
She thought the scarf around Marten’s hair and nose was strange. “It was not that cold outside,” she stated.
Jurors learned of a missing persons search that began after the couple fled their burning car. It was near Bolton on January 5, 2023. They left baby clothes behind, along with a placenta in a towel. This alerted police to Victoria and confirmed her existence.
Prosecutors claim they failed to clothe Victoria well, causing her death from the cold. Suffocation could have also happened as they slept in a “flimsy” tent.
Victoria’s body was found in a shopping bag with rubbish in a shed. The defendants were arrested nearby in Brighton on February 27, 2023.
Marten and Gordon, who have no fixed address, deny manslaughter and causing Victoria’s death between January 4 and February 27, 2023. They were convicted earlier of concealing the birth and perverting justice, a detail jurors were told.
The retrial at the Old Bailey is still ongoing.