Marten: I had to get the baby away from my bigoted family

CONSTANCE MARTEN has claimed she was forced to give birth in secret to avoid her “oppressive and bigoted family” who wanted to “erase her children from the family line”.

Giving evidence at the Old Bailey, where she and partner Mark Gordon are on trial accused of manslaughter by gross negligence of their baby daughter Victoria, the 36-year-old claimed her “wealthy” family would not allow them to have children.

Jurors heard that in 2017 she gave birth to her first child in Wales under a false name, claiming to be a traveller from Leeds.

Asked why she had done this, she said: “I had to escape my family as my family are extremely oppressive and bigoted and they would not allow me to have children with my husband and they would do anything to erase that child from the family line.”

The court previously heard that her first four children had all been taken into care or adopted.

Victoria died while the couple were staying in a tent on the South Downs last winter. Her body was discovered in a supermarket bag in a disused shed on an allotment near Brighton.

In cross-examination, Mr Smith repeatedly asked Miss Marten if she thought living in a tent with a newborn baby was a good idea.

She replied: “We are looking at this from a Western perspective. There are people around the world who live in tents, there are children who live in igloos as long as you give them warmth and love and food… I would have preferred not to be in a tent.”

The couple are accused of manslaughter by gross negligence, concealing the birth of a child, cruelty to a person under 16, causing or allowing the death of a child, and perverting the course of justice.

They deny all the charges and the trial continues.

Mark Gordon and Constance Marten have been charged with manslaughter