Constance Marten trial – newest: Aristocrat accused of manslaughter says she ‘did nothing but show baby love’

Marten stated she and Gordon would use disposable telephones and alter them continuously, naming two corporations she believed have been trailing her.

“A lot of these private investigators are either former police or former secret service…they can hack into anything. They are constantly on my phone and in my email,” she instructed the court docket.

She stated they used burner telephones to stop them being tracked by way of the GPS, including: “It just buys us more time.”

The mom instructed the court docket she delivered baby Victoria squatting by the aspect of the mattress in an AirBnB in Northumberland on Christmas Eve.

Marten stated she didn’t want help delivering her fifth baby following a problem-free being pregnant, but insisted she would have sought medical assist if she wanted it.

“We had lots of sheets and mattress toppers so we didn’t leave any blood on the floor,” she instructed the jury, including they’d a TENS machine to assist her handle contractions.

“We had a paddling pool but I never ended up using it. That’s all I can remember.”

Ahead of a break in her proof, Judge Mark Lucraft KC warned Marten to not converse to anybody and famous seeing Gordon go her a observe earlier than she started her testimony.

He instructed her: “He must not do that. It’s you giving evidence, not him.”

Marten instructed jurors how she got here from a rich household and was privately educated earlier than finding out Arabic at Leeds University.

She went on to journey extensively to Egypt, India, Nepal, Nigeria, Uganda and South America and labored for Al Jazeera, the Middle Eastern information station.

She met Gordon in 2014 in an store promoting incense they usually had a wedding ceremony in Peru two years later, though it was not legally binding.

The 36-year-old instructed the court docket that asking social providers to assist her after she delivered her first baby was the “worst decision”.

She had appealed to the authorities to assist her discover emergency housing as a result of she and Gordon had been residing in a tent.

“I feel like a made a bet with the devil asking social services for help and I think that was the worst decision,” she stated.

A household court docket went on to finally take all 4 of her kids into care a number of years later, earlier than she and Gordon went within the run with their fifth baby Victoria.

She choked again tears when she was requested if she had ever harmed any of her kids.

She stated: “Absolutely not. Mark and I love our kids more than anything in the world so I’m pretty angry about the fact they had to go through this process. It’s not good enough.”

Challenged on the prosecution suggestion she and Gordon put their pursuits forward of the youngsters, she stated: “No, there is literally nothing I would not do for my children.”

Constance Marten insisted she and Mark Gordon gave pretend names at hospital when she delivered her first baby as a result of she wished to flee her household.

“I was trying to flee my family. I had spoken about a childhood traumatic event against one of my family members and also the sale of my grandmother’s estate,” she instructed the court docket.

“Her will was gotten rid of and they used a letter of wishes to sell the estate which was against her will and I did an investigation into it and the fact that I thought it was wrong and that’s when I noticed I was being trailed by private investigators very heavily.

“I didn’t think it was fair for my child to live under those constraints.”

She added: “I wanted to bring up my child … in a happy home with [their] parents away from the constant surveillance of my family.”

She instructed the court docket it was “probably naïve”, but she thought the one means to try this was to go to hospital with a pretend title.

Greater Manchester Police launched a nationwide search after a placenta was discovered within the couple’s burnt-out automobile by the motorway close to Bolton, Greater Manchester, on 5 January.

Days after the defendants’ arrest on 27 February final yr, Victoria’s badly decomposed physique was present in a Lidl bag inside an allotment shed in Brighton, East Sussex.

Constance Marten instructed jurors on that Victoria died on 9 January.

While the trigger of her dying is “unascertained”, jurors have heard she may have died from the chilly or co-sleeping. It is alleged the defendants went on the run as a result of they wished to maintain their daughter, after 4 different kids have been taken into care.

Marten instructed police Victoria died when she fell asleep within the tent whereas holding her below her jacket.

The court docket has heard Marten had beforehand been warned by social staff of the dangers of falling asleep with the baby on her and {that a} tent can be “wholly inappropriate for a baby to live in”.

Answering questions from her lawyer Francis FitzGibbon KC, Constance Marten defined she wished a “conventional life” together with her accomplice Mark Gordon, but added: “I have had great difficulty with my wider family. And certain things … it has not been a choice.”

She instructed the jury that ties together with her household had begun breaking down two years earlier than the couple met in 2014 – but afterwards she wished nothing to do with them.

“We have had a long history with issues in that regard … I stopped speaking to one of my family members two years before I met Mr Gordon,” she said.

“But I think when I met him I made a definite decision that was it for me – I didn’t want anything to do with them.”

Constance Marten revealed she had met Mark Gordon in 2014 when they met in a shop selling incense – before they were married in a ceremony in Peru two years later.

“We were just friends at the start and then we went travelling together. We went to Peru,” she told the court.

“We got married over there but it’s not recognised over here. It’s a Peruvian sort of wedding ceremony – it’s not legally binding.”

Constance Marten told jurors she did not expose her baby to cold or allow her to get too hot, so far as she was aware.

Defence barrister Francis FitzGibbon KC said: “So far as you are concerned, did you give her anything less than the proper care you thought she deserved?”

Marten replied: “I gave her the best that any mother would, yeah.”