Marten’s baby found in bag with beer cans
Mother cries in court as footage shows her admitting her child’s body is in supermarket carrier
CONSTANCE MARTEN wept in court while watching a recording of herself telling police that a body found in a supermarket bag was her baby.
Police discovered the child’s remains in a Lidl bag for life in a disused shed on an allotment, two days after Ms Marten, 36, and her partner, Mark Gordon, 49, were arrested after seven weeks on the run.
In bodycam footage shown at the Old Bailey, officers are seen pulling rubbish – including a Budweiser beer can and two Coca-cola cans – from the bag, before discovering the body at the bottom.
Ms Marten later told police she had kept the body because she “was going to be asked about it”, the court heard.
In the footage from March 1 2023 showing the moment the baby was discovered, officers were seen carefully going through the large red shopping bag which had been placed on decking outside the shed on Lower Roedale allotments, in Brighton.
Giving evidence, Pc Allen Ralph, who had been sent from Scotland Yard to help in the search, told jurors of the moment he made the discovery, saying that he had already seen earlier CCTV footage of the distinctive bag before being deployed to the scene with a colleague.
As he approached the disused shed, he noticed a broken window and lifted the door to get in, the court heard.
The first thing he noticed was the smell, Pc Ralph said, adding: “I remember saying, ‘Either something is dead in there or something has died.’”
Inside there was a tent, out-of-date milk and bread on a makeshift table and the shopping bag underneath, he said.
Pc Ralph added that he commented to his partner during a break that he was sure he had seen that bag before, so the pair went back to take a closer look.
Inside the bag there were two nappies, a pink baby blanket, vest and babygrow, cardboard, leaves and other rubbish.
Other items included a black blanket, a can of Budweiser, two Coca-cola cans, two Hollingbury Golf Club scorecards, and a glass water bottle filled with petrol bought at a Texaco garage on Jan 12 2023.
The officer said he had put on gloves before placing the bag on decking outside the shed to examine the contents.
As they searched, his colleague indicated that he had seen what looked like the head of a doll, jurors heard.
The officers realised a baby was inside the bag after seeing the infant’s leg.
Pc Ralph said the baby was “very pale” and “very cold” to the touch.
In a police interview played in court, Ms Marten said she gave birth in Cumbria on Christmas Eve and the baby had died in the Harwich area, in Essex, around Jan 8.
She wept and was handed tissues in court, as she watched the footage of herself.
She said: “I had her in my jacket and I hadn’t slept properly in quite a few days and erm, I fell asleep holding her sitting up and she, when I woke up, she wasn’t alive.”
Ms Marten went on to say that she wanted to keep the baby, named Victoria, with her after her other four children were taken away.
When the baby died, she considered giving her a “proper burial” but did not want the child to be eaten by animals.
She told police: “I don’t know if you found, there’s a bottle of petroleum in the bag because I debated whether to cremate her myself, get rid of the evidence, but I decided to keep her because I knew at some point in the future I was going to be asked about it, but I just didn’t know what to do. So that’s why we’re here really.”
Previously, the court was told how the couple went on the run with their newborn daughter on Jan 5 last year after their car burst into flames on a motorway near Bolton.
As police launched a nationwide search for the missing baby, the defendants travelled across England and ended up living off-grid in a tent on the South Downs for around seven weeks, jurors heard.
On Feb 20 2023, they were caught on CCTV carrying a Lidl bag and rummaging through bins outside Hollingbury Golf Club in Brighton.
They were arrested on suspicion of child neglect after a member of the public spotted them and called 999 seven days later.
The defendants were taken to separate police stations and repeatedly refused to answer questions about the missing child.
Joel Smith, prosecuting, told the court: “The police still did not know where the child was, whether the child was alive or dead or even the sex of the child.”
Following his arrival at Worthing police station, Mr Gordon complained repeatedly that he was in pain and said he was receiving “sub-par treatment”.
“I’m in custody, but that doesn’t mean I’m a dog,” he told officers.
Mr Gordon refused to say where the child was, or what her name was.
Following the discovery of the baby girl, Mr Gordon continued to say “no comment” to all questions, the court heard.
The defendants, of no fixed address, deny manslaughter by gross negligence, perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty and causing or allowing the death of a child. The Old Bailey trial was adjourned until Monday.
‘I debated whether to cremate her myself, get rid of the evidence, but I decided to keep her’