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An aristocrat and her companion carried their child daughter round in a Lidl plastic provider bag throughout freezing circumstances as they went on the run to evade authorities, a court has heard.
Constance Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, 49, lived “off-grid” in a tent on the South Downs, depriving the lady – often known as Baby A – of heat, shelter and meals throughout her brief life, jurors have been advised.
During the opening of the trial on the Old Bailey, prosecutor Tom Little KC advised how the couple’s “reckless, utterly selfish and callous” conduct led to the “entirely avoidable” demise of the little lady. Her stays have been ultimately present in a disued shed, hidden in a purchasing bag lined in garbage “as if she was refuse”.
Mr Little stated: “The young baby girl would still – we say – be alive if it was not for the reckless, utterly selfish, callous, cruel, arrogant and ultimately grossly negligent conduct of these two defendants who are on trial.
“They were the parents of that young baby girl. They put their relationship and their view of life before the life of a little baby girl.”
The court heard that the couple hid Ms Marten’s 2022 being pregnant from associates, household and healthcare professionals, earlier than happening the run – fearing the kid could be taken from them. Jurors heard the toddler was the couple’s fifth child, their different youngsters having beforehand been taken into care.
They ended up residing out of a tent in Sussex throughout a excessive profile police seek for the household.
Mr Little stated: “They decided that in the middle of a cold winter and in cruel obviously dangerous weather conditions that they would deprive the baby of what it needed – warmth, shelter, food and ultimately safety.
“They essentially went off-grid and lived in a tent with hardly any clothes, no means keeping and remaining warm and dry with scarcely any food.”
He added: “It was their selfish desire to keep their baby girl that led inexorably to the death of that baby girl.”
Jurors have been advised police solely discovered of the baby’s existence after they found a placenta behind a burnt out Peugeot 206 – which caught fireplace on the M61 motorway on the night of 5 January final 12 months.
Greater Manchester Police discovered numerous “burner” cellular telephones upon looking out the burnt-out automobile, that are used “if you want to limit the ability of law enforcement to track you down”, the prosecutor stated.
Mr Little KC stated Marten‘s passport was also found in the vehicle alongside a placenta that was wrapped in a towel, which “revealed the existence of a missing, new-born baby”.
A number of other items including “new baby” nappies and items of baby clothing were found in Amblecote playing fields next to the motorway.
The court heard that, at one point while on the run – the parents dumped a buggy they had just purchased and transferred the infant to a Lidl ‘bag for life’ the place it spent a lot of its life earlier than she died.
“It would have been plain to the defendents, you must have thought, that this was an entirely inappropriate way to care for any child,” Mr Little added.
The mother and father each deny manslaughter by gross negligence of their daughter between 4 January and 27 February final 12 months.
The pair additionally deny fees of perverting the course of justice by concealing the physique, concealing the start of a kid, youngster cruelty and permitting the demise of a kid.
The toddler’s stays have been present in a plastic bag in a locked shed at an overgrown allotment within the Hollingbury space of Brighton on 1 March. The discovery got here after Marten and Gordon have been arrested in close by Stanmer Villas.
The trial, scheduled to final till 8 March, continues.
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