This video is doctored, claims Constance Marten

Aristocrat Constance Marten told a court today that her family claimed she was having children to sell them on the black market.

Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, 49, are accused of killing their fifth child 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 as the couple spent nearly two months camping in a blue tent in 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.

Marten claims the baby died asleep in her arms after one night of camping telling police: ‘I believe I fell asleep on top of her.’

The couple met in 2014 and had four children in quick succession who were all eventually taken into care after Marten gave birth to their first child using an Irish accent pretending to be a traveller, jurors have heard.

Marten claims this was because her family were paying private investigators to follow her.

The couple deny the manslaughter of Victoria by gross negligence, concealment of the birth of a child, cruelty to a person under 16 and perverting the course of justice by disposing of the body.

Prosecutor Joel Smith asked her: ‘Do you remember what you were doing when you found out you were pregnant with Victoria?’

‘I’m not sure what the relevance of that question is.’

She was told to answer the question.

‘I would have been on the toilet,’ said Marten.

‘Do you remember which house you were in, what you were up to?’

‘I was in Greenwich. I was in a house in Greenwich.’

Marten went on to day that her children were taken away from her ‘illegally.’

‘It is abhorrent. My children were stolen from me by the state, there is no other way to say it.’

She said that she wanted to go abroad illegally with Victoria so that the baby could spent the first three months of her life with her mother.

‘Our plan was to go abroad to get Victoria away from the services and my family,’ she explained.

‘Unfortunately there were preventatives to me going abroad.’

Marten claimed that a family member had got a court order which banned her from leaving the country.

‘They had the full backing of the state to do that.

‘They said that I was bearing children to sell on the black market, that I was a drug addict. Those accusations are wholly unfounded.’

Marten said that social services had stopped her at the border in the past when she had tried to go abroad.

‘They had done it before in the past when I tried to take my children to Ireland.’

‘I wanted to stay with her for the first three months of her life.’

‘My number one concern was to keep my baby with her mother. I’m a good mother. I’m an excellent mother in fact. She deserved to be with me.’

Marten was asked what her plan was for getting healthcare and schooling for Victoria.

‘We had four or live years until that happened, until she went to school,’ she said.

‘In France they go to school at the age of six or seven. In England it’s very young.

‘If I’d needed healthcare I would have gone to a private doctor, I’ve used aliases in the past.’

She said that if they hadn’t managed to go abroad, the plan was to find a carer who would take Victoria abroad illegally and she was going to find one on Gumtree.

‘I would have given her a carer who cares for other children who would then have taken her abroad under another name.

‘There is a huge underground network of parents who have been through the services.’

Marten claims that CCTV footage of her and Gordon has been edited.

She claimed the police deliberately put a torch in part of the film to block out them assaulting Gordon.

Judge Mark Lucraft said to Marten: ‘You are making very serious allegations against other people in this court.

‘Bear in mind that there may well be consequences to you of doing so. It is important that I warn you of that.’

Marten’s wealthy family lived at Dorset estate Crichel House during Marten’s youth and her grandmother was a playmate of Princess Margaret and goddaughter to the Queen Mother.

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

They also deny causing or allowing the death of a child.

Marten claimed footage of her and Gordon being arrested had been edited.

She alleged that the police used ‘excessive’ force against Gordon but that this wasn’t obvious from the footage shown to the jury.

‘I was begging them to be gentle with him, that he is not well, that he’s basically got half his toe missing.

‘I was begging them, saying ‘Your force is a bit excessive’.’

She claimed that the sound was not working on the footage when she was telling them to be gentle.

‘Maybe it was an accident. Maybe the sound wasn’t working.’

She claimed the prosecution chose body-worn footage that did not show Gordon on the floor because one of the officers holding a torch had his hand in front of the camera.

‘They specifically hand-picked that footage with the gentleman putting his arm up.’

Mr Smith asked Marten if she was lying about the cot and the car seat she claimed to have got for Victoria.

Marten said they were lost when the car caught fire and objected to being called a liar.

‘I’m just concerned when they keep saying words like neglect and lie over and over again,’ she told the judge.

‘It affects the jury. It’s not fair.

‘My kids have never, ever experienced neglect.’

Marten claims they only had the clothes on their backs after the fire and £2,000 in cash was lost in the fire.

She said that the couple had limited access to cash because they believed the police could find where they were if they used a cashpoint.

Mr Smith asked her if she accepted, that because of this she was ‘not in a proper state to look after a child.’

‘We were not planning on staying in that position. We were finding ourselves in situations. I would never in my life foresee the car blowing up.

‘Things happen which are completely unforeseen and I had to act in the best way I could for my child and that’s what I did.

‘Everything we were doing we doing when we were on the run was for Victoria.

‘My children have been physically abused in care and its been covered up. It’s and outrage.

‘The plan was ”Lets get Victoria away from these people.”

The trial continues.