Constance Marten’s boyfriend blames police manhunt for the death of their baby

Constance Marten’s boyfriend told a court they went on the run with their baby daughter because they did not want the social services to deprive them of their time with their newborn.

Marten, 38, and partner Mark Gordon, 50, lived off grid with Victoria, moving between hotels and rented houses after their four previous children were taken into care and adopted.

Victoria died while living in a flimsy tent in the South Downs in January 2023 with few clothes or blankets, the Old Bailey has heard.

The heavily decomposed baby was eventually found dead on 1 March 2023 in a shed in a Lidl bag for life covered in rubbish.

Victoria died due to ‘hypothermia or grossly dangerous co-sleeping’ according to the prosecution.

Gordon is defending himself and today (weds) he addressed the jury wearing the pink cloth he has taken to wearing over his head as Marten mouthed words of support from the dock.

They claim her parents objected to her being with Gordon because he was black and were determined to destroy their relationship.

Marten has claimed at least 15 of their cars were destroyed by their family or the private investigators they hired.

Gordon told the jury the couple were being followed by private investigators and one had stopped and questioned them.

The couple rented homes in Dagenham and Greenwich before they travelled around the country moving from one hotel to another.

‘Sometimes we would come back to the house and notice things had been moved,’ he said.

‘We realised there were actually people coming into the house.’

Gordon said they were more than capable of looking after their children and Victoria.

‘When she was pregnant we thought we were able to do things okay. I’m not going to say were the best or the greatest but we felt we can do okay,’ he explained.

‘The impact of having the kids removed – not being there – had an effect.

‘It was like a vacuum, a hole and emptiness. You try to fill it but you can never fill it.

‘This was the focal point. This was what we woke up and talked about. It was
going through our heads the whole time.’

Gordon said when Victoria was born the parents were both desperate to be with the child.

‘She wanted some time with the baby and we never ever could have looked and seen what would have happened – how it unfolded,’ he said.

He added: ‘My role with my wife was support my wife,’ said Gordon, and describing Marten as ‘beautiful and noble.’

‘During this process we were thinking: ”Is someone going to knock on our door.”

‘This was in the back of our minds – this beautiful baby is going to be snatched away.’

He said his only thought was to help his wife.

‘My role was to stand with her, to help her,’ said Gordon.

‘I agreed with what was going on. I agreed to take a stand with her.’

Marten and Gordon deny manslaughter by gross negligence and an alternative charge of causing or allowing the death of a child.

They were convicted of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice by hiding her body at an earlier trial.

Marten comes from a wealthy aristocratic family and her father was a page to Queen Elizabeth II.

Marten and Gordon deny manslaughter and causing or allowing the death of a child.

Gordon told jurors their baby would still be alive today if there had not been a a manhunt for the couple and the baby.

‘If it had naturally played out, I believe the baby would still be alive today, we wanted the best for that baby,’ he said.

‘The reality is you are dealing with two people under pressure being harassed by various forces, a woman that is going through situations, I am going through them too because I love children and this backdrop is a national manhunt.

‘If somebody chases you, what do you do, before then we were walking around in public, we weren’t hiding, we were present in public.

‘Who gave the command to do the national manhunt?

‘We were not in the right state of mind and the fact is we have to have compassion in our system, there are plenty of criminals out on the street and they chased two parents.

‘If they gave a little bit of time, it is very likely we would have handed the baby in on our own accord.

‘If we had a little bit more time, sadly that beautiful baby, my daughter, who I am not able to grieve for, I have been too busy answering questions.

‘I thought we were exercising our rights, it was the chase that facilitated these events, we can’t talk about right or wrong because we weren’t in the right state of mind.’

Gordon blamed issues with social services for their decision to go on the run.

He continued: ‘From that point, there was an incident in Dagenham, with our third child, we were in the house, my wife was pregnant.

‘When my wife was having the third baby, the social worker was trying to push her way into the house and these things made her distrust the system a little bit, there is history, we have worked with social services, we have believed in them.

‘She chose to come back here, chose to trust that the social services would give her what she considered a fair deal.

‘I believe in the system actually, we both believe in the system, we can all talk about this and that, my wife has travelled the world, what I will say to you members of the jury, is our actions are based on our experiences and I have no qualm with the social services or any of our emergency services.

‘But it is not a perfect system, I do not want to be standing in the Old Bailey, I don’t want this to happen but now I have to explain myself criminally for our loss.

‘It is our baby we have lost, I will never ever forget the feeling, it will live with me forever, we have suffered because of what we did, we will live with it forever and this is not the way to handle this, it should be dealt with differently, but anyway, when we were in Cumbria, we had all the supplies, my wife gave birth.

‘I was thinking, we have to do something, I was thinking, I don’t feel right myself, I was happy but at the same time sad, I can tell you today, members of the jury, there was no tension, we never wanted (her) to come to harm and I want you to know that.

‘I haven’t had time to grieve, I am in a state of shock but I think it is important, Great Britain is a country of fairness and compassion and I think we should consider this, we don’t put people in prison who don’t need to be in prison.

‘Losing a child affects you, it scars you mentally, especially when it is not just, it felt like we were abused, like we were wronged.

‘I am being honest with the jury, I don’t want to mislead you, we knew if we stayed in that house, somebody would come knocking, you don’t want somebody to take the baby away from you.

‘At no point in time was that baby ever put at risk, my wife had four children, she knows how to look after a child, I am not trying to tell the jury that we are the best, but we never put that baby at risk.’

Marten and Gordon were both in tears as Gordon gave his evidence.

The trial continues.