Constance Marten’s parents admit they hired private detectives to track her, court is told

The parents of Constance Marten hired private investigators on several occasions to find their daughter, a court has heard. Ms Marten, 36, and her boyfriend Mark Gordon, 49, are accused of killing their newborn baby Victoria by taking her on the run in January last year to prevent her being taken away by social services. The baby’s placenta was found in an exploded car on a Manchester motorway, sparking a huge police hunt for the couple, who spent nearly two months camping in a tent on the South Downs near Brighton.

Victoria was later found dead in a Lidl bag for life, and prosecutors claim she died from exposure after weeks in bitterly cold conditions.

Mark Gordon and Constance Marten, whose four previous children were taken into care before Victoria was born

Marten claims the baby died in her arms after one night in the tent, telling police: “I believe I fell asleep on top of her.” The couple had four previous children taken into care, which Ms Marten blames on the meddling of her wealthy aristocratic family. Giving evidence earlier in the trial at the Old Bailey, Ms Marten claimed she was tracked by a private investigator in 2017 after the birth of her first child in Wales.

And she said she believed her family were doing the same following the birth of Victoria in December. Reading a set of agreed facts to the jury on Thursday, Joel Smith KC, prosecuting, said that Ms Marten’s parents had made statements to police admitting hiring private investigators to look into their daughter.

Virginie de Selliers, Constance Marten’s mother, and Tobias Marten, the defendant’s brother, outside the Old BaileyCredit: JORDAN PETTITT/PA

Virginie de Selliers, Ms Marten’s mother, who has attended the trial regularly, told police she had employed a private investigator for two weeks in October 2016 as she was worried about her daughter. Napier Marten, her father, admitted hiring a private investigator in 2017 and 2021 to try to find her.

But both parents deny employing a private investigator in 2022 or 2023 when Marten claims she was still being tracked. Ms Marten’s family lived at the Crichel House estate in Dorset during her youth. Her grandmother was a playmate of Princess Margaret and goddaughter to the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, while her father was a page to Queen Elizabeth II.

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

The trial continues.