Constance Marten claims she knew the moment baby Victoria had died in her arms
Constance Marten has claimed she knew the moment her baby Victoria had died in her arms - as she was on the run from police.
The aristocrat, aged 38, and her partner Mark Gordon, 49, spent almost two months running from police. Officers began searching for them after their car was found abandoned and on fire on a motorway outside Bolton on January 5.
Authorities grew concerned for the welfare of the child and Marten’s previous four children were taken into care - the court heard. It took weeks, until February 27, when police caught up to the couple who had been living off the grid, often sleeping in tents.
After arresting the couple, both Marten and Gordon refused to reveal where the baby was - instead, she remained silent and he complained. Just a few days after their arrest, Victoria’s body was found in a red Lidl bag, along with empty beer cans and rubbish, stuffed in a shed in an allotment in Brighton.
During the ongoing trial, held at the Old Bailey, jurors were shown video footage of Marten’s interview with police on the evening of March 1, hours after Victoria’s body had been discovered. At the start of the 90-minute interview she was told a baby's body had been found, and the officer asked her: "Is it your baby?"
Marten replied "yes", and started sobbing, before telling the officer: "Her name was Victoria". She sobbed in the dock as the interview was played to the court. Marten said she first learned she was pregnant with Victoria in March 2022. She said Victoria was born "in a house in Cumbria" on Christmas Eve 2022. She said she had travelled there a few days earlier, and that she had had no medical assistance with the birth.
Victoria died just days later, on January 7. Marten said: "We were staying outside in the countryside. I had her in my jacket and hadn't slept properly in quite a few days. I fell asleep holding her sitting up, and when I woke up she wasn't alive. When I woke up she wasn't alive, in my jacket. I believe I fell asleep on top of her."
Constance Marten - a British aristocrat (
PA)
Mark Gordon - after being arrested he complained about being in pain and refused to say where Victoria was (
PA)
She said following her daughter's death "I wanted to turn myself in at that time. I was debating it. Obviously it's two months later now but I kept her body for a number of reasons."
Marten added she "didn't want to bury her in a forest, some random place, because I wanted her to have a proper burial, but also because I was concerned if an animal might eat her, that might affect the autopsy". She continued: "I debated whether to cremate her myself and get rid of the evidence, but decided to keep her because I knew at some point in the future I was going to be asked about it. I didn't know what to do."
Victoria had died two days after their car had caught fire on the M62 motorway on 5 January 2023, the court heard. Marten said she had been driving from Manchester when the vehicle started smoking. She explained: "I got out of the car to see what was wrong with it. We tried to get as much stuff as we could out of the car."
They left a number of items inside the car, including £2,000 in cash, a credit card, and a bag containing the placenta from Victoria's birth. She explained that they left the scene as "I knew the police were going to come", and she said she knew the police were searching for her.
The red Lidl shopping bag that little Victoria's remains were found in (
police Handout)
She said she was worried that if they found her "the police would take Victoria away". She added: "I wanted to keep her with me. I'm her parent." Marten told the officer that they hitched a ride to Bolton as "it was the nearest town, and the police were looking for us."
From there, she said, they took a taxi from Bolton to Liverpool, before taking a further taxi to Newhaven on the south coast of England.
The trial continues.