‘I neglected myself’: Constance Marten says baby Victoria died because she was exhausted on the run

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Constance Marten has denied neglecting her baby – insisting the toddler died because Marten didn’t take care of herself whereas on the run in the days after she gave delivery.

The aristocrat additionally informed jurors she and her accomplice Mark Gordon didn’t hand themselves in to the authorities because she doesn’t belief the police or social companies after their different 4 kids have been taken into care.

The dad and mom deny gross negligence manslaughter of Victoria, who died when zipped inside Marten’s jacket whereas they have been tenting on the South Downs final winter.

Marten, 36, informed the jury the baby was “extremely well loved” however died after Marten keeled over in exhaustion holding her inside the tent pitched on the South Downs as she hid from the authorities.

“I think Victoria passed away because she was so loved but I was actually neglecting myself. I loved her so much I wasn’t thinking about myself,” she informed the courtroom.

“I gave birth but I didn’t even have time to rest myself, I got straight in a car and was up and down the country in different hotels.

“I didn’t allow myself to rest, I neglected myself and that’s why I feel asleep in that tent.”

The mom, who hid her being pregnant and gave delivery unaided in a vacation cottage on Christmas Eve, claims she awoke to search out the baby lifeless inside her jacket on January 9.

The courtroom heard the couple thought-about cremating the new child however positioned her physique in a provider bag and carried her round for a number of weeks because Marten needed her to have an post-mortem.

By the time the dad and mom have been arrested on 27 February final 12 months, after 53 days on the run, the dad and mom have been staying in an deserted shed in a Brighton allotment – the place baby Victoria’s stays have been ultimately discovered lined in garbage in a Lidl bag for all times.

She additionally admitted advising Gordon, 49, to misinform police about being current when their daughter died because she thought they’d “automatically blame him, being a black guy”.

She stated Gordon informed her to not inform police that Victoria died whereas she was holding her – whereas she suggested him to inform police he was not there when she died.

Asked if she suggested Gordon to misinform the police, she stated: “Yes, I’m very protective over my husband because I feel that he gets blamed for everything.”

She added: “I thought they were going to automatically blame him, being a black guy, and I am the good one usually.”

Asked if it was honest to say that Gordon suggested her to lie and she suggested him to lie with the intention to shield one another, Marten stated: “Yes.”

Marten informed the courtroom she had mentioned handing herself in with Gordon however stated she didn’t belief the system.

“There was a point where I did trust the system. After what I experienced with my children I am sorry I don’t trust the police, I don’t trust social services and I was panicked… that somehow they would blame me and I panicked,” she informed the courtroom.

She later added: “For me I believe that once the police have you in their sights they shoot and they shoot to kill. They pile up charges and they like to prosecute.”

The mom additionally insisted she by no means meant to spend “months on end” residing in a tent with Victoria.

Continuing her cross examination at the Old Bailey, she informed Joel Smith KC they purchased a tent to spend a “day or two away from prying eyes” because the complete nation was in search of them amid a high-profile police search.

“We said if we can’t find a house within the next day or two we’re probably gonna have to hand Victoria in. Because we never intended to stay there for any period of time,” she informed the courtroom.

She insisted that they had taken her off-grid out of affection and didn’t need her to be taken into care like their 4 different kids.

“It was because we loved her so much. We thought we have got to save our child from being separated from her parents and potentially going in care where neglect is rampant,” she stated, including her actions have been the “opposite of neglect”.

Challenged over the security of elevating a baby in a tent, she informed Mr Smith you “might aswell arrest half the world” for elevating kids in tents.

Earlier this month, Marten argued their interval residing in a tent on the South Downs was being checked out from a “Western perspective”, including that Bedouin households stroll by chilly deserts with kids whereas others reside in shanty cities.

The prosecution alleges the couple’s “reckless and completely egocentric” behaviour led to the “entirely avoidable” loss of life of the new child.

The defendants, of no fastened deal with, deny manslaughter by gross negligence, perverting the course of justice, concealing the delivery of a kid, little one cruelty and inflicting or permitting the loss of life of a kid.

The Old Bailey trial continues.