A couple who lost their newborn daughter while on the run from authorities and living off-grid say they carried her around in a Lidl Lifelong Bag and then threw her away “like trash”. The court made it clear.
The daughter of Constance Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, 49, was found with shopping bags covered in trash in a disused storeroom after the couple tried to hide her birth from authorities. was found inside, the Old Bailey jury heard on Thursday.
Prosecutor Tom Little KC said her death was the result of the couple's “reckless, totally selfish, callous, cruel, arrogant and ultimately gross negligence”.
The court heard the baby was the couple's fifth child and their other children had previously been taken into care.
The two men, whose addresses are unknown, deny causing the girl's death through gross negligence. They are also charged with perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, child abuse, and causing or causing the death of a child.
“Their selfish desire to keep the baby girl led inexorably to her death,” Little said at the beginning of the trial.
The court heard the car the couple were traveling in caught fire on the M61 motorway on the night of January 5 last year, sparking a massive search. The defendants fled, but Greater Manchester Police found Ms Marten's passport along with her placenta wrapped in a towel in the burnt-out car, “revealing the existence of a missing newborn baby”, Mr Little said. Ta.
Other belongings, including newborn diapers and baby clothes, were also found at a playground next to the highway.
Jurors heard the couple spent hundreds of pounds on taxi fares as they traveled around the country, with their movements caught on CCTV.
In London, they bought a “flimsy tent,” two sleeping bags, a pillow, and a stroller, but quickly abandoned the stroller.
Mr Little told jurors: “The child was placed in a red-reinforced Lidl 'lifetime bag', where it is likely that she spent much of her life until her death.”
The couple were arrested in Brighton on February 27, and were found to have been camping in the South Downs National Park for several weeks in “freezing cold, windy and wet weather”, in a “disturbed” state and hungry. the court said.
There have been a number of sightings in recent weeks in the East Sussex area, including on golf courses where they were “scavenging for food from bins” in an attempt to gain entry.
After an extensive search, the baby's body was discovered on March 1st.
The jury heard Ms Marten gave different accounts of when the baby was born and when it died. When she finally calmed down on January 11, she told police: “I had her in my jacket and she hadn’t slept properly for the past few days, so I sat her down and held her and she fell asleep…When I woke up, she wasn’t alive. ” She said she and Gordon tried CPR to no avail.
Ms Gordon told police: “It was the most harrowing experience to see my child like that,” the court heard.
Marten told officers that he wanted an autopsy and a proper burial, so “we just kept carrying him because we didn't really know what to do.”
She told police she bought the gasoline because she was “confused about whether or not to cremate the body herself.” According to the court, at one point she got a shovel from her allotment, but “she hadn't eaten in a long time so she didn't have the strength to bury it that deep.” said.
The woman said she started to smell a strange smell, so she threw dirt over the body and her bag became too heavy to carry.
Mr Little told the jury that the baby's exact birth and death dates were known only to the defendant, but the baby must have been born on or after December 28, 2022.
The court said it was difficult to determine the infant's cause of death, but the pathology was consistent with death from hypothermia or exposure.
Little said the baby's parents “put their relationship and outlook on life ahead of the baby girl's life.” In just a few words, this is what this case is all about.
“They basically lived in tents with no electricity, very little clothing, no way to stay warm and dry, and little food.
“Their selfish desire to keep the baby girl led to her death inexorably.”
The court heard Ms Marten gave birth to her child in 2017 while living in a camper van and wore a fake Irish accent at the hospital, pretending to be from the Traveler community. After she gave birth again in 2021, she left her child in the hospital and when she returned the next day, she was refused entry due to coronavirus regulations and refusal to test.
The incident continues.
