Marten blames baby death on 'self-neglect' in hiding

Constance Marten has denied neglecting her baby, insisting the infant died because Marten didn't look after herself while on the run in the days after she gave birth.

- AMY-CLARE MARTIN

The aristocrat also told jurors she and her partner Mark Gordon did not hand themselves in to the authorities because she does not trust the police or social services after their other four children were taken into care.

The parents deny gross negligence manslaughter of Victoria, who died when zipped inside Marten’s jacket while they were camping on the South Downs last winter. Marten, 36, told the jury the baby was “extremely well loved” but died after Marten keeled over in exhaustion holding her inside the tent pitched on the South Downs as she hid from the authorities.

“I think Victoria passed away because she was so loved but I was actually neglecting myself. I loved her so much I wasn’t thinking about myself,” she told the court. “I gave birth but I didn’t even have time to rest myself, I got straight in a car and was up and down the country in different hotels. I didn’t allow myself to rest, I neglected myself and that’s why I fell asleep in that tent.”

The mother, who concealed her pregnancy and gave birth unaided in a holiday cottage on Christmas Eve, claims she awoke to find the baby dead inside her jacket on 9 January 2023.

The court heard the couple considered cremating the newborn but placed her body in a carrier bag and carried her around for several weeks because Marten wanted her to have an autopsy.