Constance Marten to offer proof over the demise of her new child child | EUROtoday

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An aristocrat accused of killing her toddler daughter has insisted she did nothing however present her child love, including: “I gave her the best that any mother would.”

Constance Marten, who denies gross negligence manslaughter of her new child, advised jurors she had finished nothing to hurt the kid, who died after she and the kid’s father Mark Gordon allegedly spent weeks dwelling in a tent in freezing circumstances.

Giving proof from the witness field on the Old Bailey on Thursday, the 36-year-old choked again tears as she described how the demise of her child – to whom she gave beginning at an Airbnb on Christmas Eve – is one thing she is going to by no means get better from.

“I feel guilty because she was in my arms,” she mentioned. “I feel like it’s not an easy thing to live with. I think initially it was disbelief, shock, intense grief.”

The prosecution alleges the couple’s “reckless and utterly selfish” behaviour led to the “entirely avoidable” demise of the toddler, named Victoria, after the pair spent weeks dwelling “off-grid” in a tent in freezing circumstances on the South Downs.

The courtroom heard that Marten had hid her being pregnant and gone on the run with Gordon – whom she met in an incense store in 2014 – after their 4 different youngsters had been taken into care.

Her proof comes after jurors had been beforehand advised her accomplice Gordon, 49, wouldn’t be coming into the witness field.

During the courtroom session, Marten revealed she had met Gordon in 2014 in a store promoting incense – earlier than they had been 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 advised the courtroom. “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.”

Under questioning from her lawyer Francis FitzGibbon KC, she defined she needed a “conventional life” with Gordon, however broke ties along with her household after their relationship started.

She advised the jury that ties along with her household had begun breaking down two years earlier than she met Gordon – however afterwards she needed 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.

“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.”

Marten advised the courtroom that by the point her first baby was born, the couple had been attempting to flee from her household amid fears they had been being adopted by personal investigators.

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

“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.”

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

She advised the courtroom it was “probably naive”, however she thought the one to try this was to offer medical doctors on the hospital with a faux identify when she delivered her baby.

However she mentioned that asking social companies to assist her to seek out emergency housing with their first baby was the “worst decision”, in spite of everything her youngsters had been taken into care years later.

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

A household courtroom went on to finally take all 4 of her youngsters 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 5 youngsters.

She mentioned: “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’s suggestion she and Gordon put their pursuits forward of the youngsters, she mentioned: “No, there is literally nothing I would not do for my children.”

The couple each deny gross negligence manslaughter of their daughter Victoria between 4 January and 27 February final 12 months.

They additionally deny expenses of perverting the course of justice by concealing the physique, together with concealing the beginning of a kid, baby cruelty, and permitting the demise of a kid.

The trial continues.