Constance Marten trial information: Manslaughter-accused aristocrat ‘did not want police to find baby’s stays’

Prosecutor Joel Smith asserted that Constance Marten and her accomplice Mark Gordon went underground along with her child as a result of she thought social companies had been improper.

He requested: “Has it occurred to you that they were right?”

Marten replied: “Victoria would be alive if it were not for them. I’m not saying they are to blame for her death. I’m saying we were in a very unfortunate position.”

Mr Smith went on: “Has it occurred to you in trying to prove them wrong you proved them more right than ever?”

The defendant denied she was attempting to show anybody improper.

Cross-examining, prosecutor Joel Smith repeatedly requested Marten if she accepted that taking her new child child to dwell in a tent within the winter was a “very bad idea”.

Marten mentioned: “Obviously being in a house would be better than being in a tent.”

She asserted it was a “very Western perspective” and there have been infants dwelling in igloos and camps at Calais.

She mentioned: “It was the only decision I had at the time. She was well cared for and well loved.”

Asked if she regretted the choice now, she mentioned: “I regret falling asleep in the way I did.”

Proceedings have resumed with Constance Marten returning to the witness field for cross-examination.

Under cross-examination by Gordon’s lawyer John Femi-Ola KC, Marten mentioned that for the primary three days after Victoria’s loss of life she was “overwhelmed” and frolicked simply holding on to her.

She did not exit once more till January 12 when she was picked up by CCTV shopping for snacks at a Texaco storage.

On Thursday, Marten described how Victoria was born at a rental cottage on Christmas Eve 2022 and died final January 9.

On how Victoria died, she mentioned: “I had her in my jacket and when I woke up my head was on the floor. And when I was sitting up and when I woke up she was not alive.”

She instructed jurors her youngsters meant the world to her and she or he had achieved nothing to Victoria “but show her love”.

On Friday, Marten instructed jurors how she and Gordon “lay low” and wished to “hide away from people” within the days after Victoria died and had been lowered to rummaging in bins for meals.

They left Victoria within the tent a few instances once they ventured out however often carried her with them, disguising themselves with glasses and a cap, the courtroom was instructed.

They narrowly prevented arrest on one event once they ate sandwiches on Brighton seaside with Victoria’s physique.

She mentioned: “We had walked to Brighton once with her body and went to the beach two-and-a-half weeks before being arrested.

“Someone noticed us on the beach, police cars started coming to the beach. We, by hook or by crook, got back to the park undetected. We stopped going out. Mark got extremely thin.”

Soon after, they stopped going into Brighton as a result of they had been “just too scared” and Gordon started trying anorexic, she mentioned.

Constance Marten has concluded giving proof in chief, with the courtroom adjourning for a brief break forward of the prosecution’s cross-examination.

The mom instructed the courtroom child Victoria was her “pride and joy”, including: “I had four kids. I know how to look after children. Our primary concern was Victoria.

“I do feel responsible for falling asleep on her if that’s what happened.

“I’m not sure because the autopsy was inconclusive but I do feel responsible for her.”

The 36-year-old instructed jurors that Gordon turned “anorexically thin” and “very unwell” after they stopped venturing into retailers for meals amid fears they’d be caught.

But they had been lastly arrested on 27 February after they had been noticed buying meals and taking out money from a store in Brighton.

Asked why she did not inform police what had occurred to Victoria immediately, she replied: “I was terrified. Scared of this happening – what’s happening now…being on trial.”

She mentioned she did not want them to find her stays, which the couple had left within the allotment shed the place that they had been sleeping, after that they had been “number one” within the information for thus lengthy.

Under questioning from her barrister Francis Fitzgibbon KC, the mom mentioned she and Gordon travelled from Newhaven to Brighton on 12 January with Victoria’s stays in a Lidl provider bag.

She mentioned they had been in a “state of grief and fear” and she or he thought of handing herself in, however feared she could be blamed for the toddler’s loss of life.

She defined she had beforehand examine different mother and father who had been wrongly jailed for his or her little one’s loss of life throughout household courtroom proceedings over her 4 different youngsters.

“I was too scared to take that risk because I knew that with all the press coverage I felt that people wanted something negative to have happened and they wouldn’t believe the truth,” she instructed the courtroom.

Marten, 36, has resumed giving proof over the loss of life of her new child daughter Victoria.

She appeared at London’s Old Bailey carrying a white floral shirt and darkish trousers on Friday.

It is the second day of proof from Marten, who yesterday insisted she had proven child Victoria “nothing but love”.

The mom wept in courtroom as she instructed jurors she and her accomplice Gordon had achieved nothing to hurt their little one – who she discovered lifeless inside her jacket whereas they lived off-grid in wintry situations.