The Daily Telegraph - Saturday
Marten ‘used trust fund’ while on the run
Mother who fled with baby girl received thousands from family accounts, manslaughter trial hears
CONSTANCE MARTEN received thousands of pounds from family trust funds while she was on the run with her newborn baby, a court has heard.
The 36-year-old is accused, alongside boyfriend Mark Gordon, 49, of the manslaughter of their daughter, Victoria, after concealing her birth and then fleeing with her in the depths of the freezing winter of 2022.
The prosecution allege Ms Marten, who comes from an aristocratic family, and Mr Gordon, spent several weeks crisscrossing the country carrying the infant in a Lidl bag for life, in an attempt to avoid detection after their first four children were taken into care.
After their car exploded on the M61 on Jan 5 last year, the couple spent hundreds of pounds on taxis to travel across the UK, often paying cash to stay in budget hotels.
But in January last year, ignoring the freezing conditions and despite having access to money, they purchased a tent and sleeping bags from a branch of Argos and began camping out on the South Downs.
The baby’s decomposing remains were discovered on March 1 in a bag of rubbish in a shed close to Brighton, with the prosecution alleging she died of hypothermia or exposure as a result of the “callous, cruel and grossly negligent” actions of her parents. On the second day of their trial at the Old Bailey, the jury heard that on Dec 22 2022, Ms Marten received a payment into her Metrobank account of £15,590 from a family trust fund.
On Dec 20 the couple checked into a holiday cottage in Northumberland, where they claim Constance gave birth four days later on Christmas Eve. They checked out on Boxing Day.
On Jan 3 2023, another payment was received from a different trust, this time for £3,400.
Tom Little KC, prosecuting previously explained that Miss Marten came from a “wealthy family”.
He told the court: “She has not had a deprived upbringing. She had potential access to money and you may have thought whatever help she needed.
“All of this begs a number of important questions which she is going to have to answer in this trial. Indeed I have already told you of a significant number of taxi journeys taken at the cost of hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds rather than spending that money to have a roof over their heads and warmth and safety.” Prosecutors allege that rather than provide their newborn baby with the shelter she needed, they selfishly chose to go “off grid” and live in a tent with no means of keeping dry, warm and well fed. “Their selfish desire to keep their baby girl led inexorably to the death of that very baby,” Mr Little said.
But John Femi-Ola KC, representing Mr Gordon denied the couple had carried their “beloved baby” around in a bag for life and insisted she had always been well cared for, dry and warm.
In addition to the charge of manslaughter, the couple are accused of perverting the course of justice by dumping the body of their dead baby in a bag of rubbish. But Mr Femi-Ola told the jury that rather than dispose of the body, Miss Marten had carried the remains of her “beloved baby” around in a bag for life because she wanted to find out why she had died.
He said: “The defence will contend there was no intention to pervert the course of justice by deliberately allowing the body to decompose so as to avoid a post mortem. They made quite clear in the interview that Constance Marten gave that she wanted a post mortem.”
Mr Gordon listened to the evidence from the dock, but Ms Marten was not present in court. The jury was told she was having a conference with her legal team.
The couple are accused of concealing the birth of a child, cruelty to a person under 16, causing or allowing the death of a child, manslaughter by gross negligence and perverting the course of justice. They deny all the charges and the trial continues.