Aristocrat and lover accused of killing new child after fleeing with the | UK | News | EUROtoday

An aristocrat and her lover killed their new child daughter after happening the run as they put their relationship earlier than the lifetime of the infant, a court docket heard. Constance Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, are accused of residing off-grid with the tot after their 4 earlier kids have been taken into care. The couple then prompted the “entirely avoidable” dying of the infant woman whose tiny physique was discovered stashed inside Lidl provider bag.

Marten and Gordon are accused of manslaughter by gross negligence after the infant was discovered useless in early 2023. Opening the Old Bailey retrial Tom Little KC, prosecuting, stated the pair allegedly saved the beginning of their daughter as “their little secret” after their 4 older kids have been taken from them by social staff. On January 5, 2023, they went on the run with the little woman after their automobile burst into flames on a motorway in Greater Manchester, jurors heard.

Having fled the scene, they travelled lots of of miles throughout England in taxis at a price of hundreds of kilos, jurors have been advised.

They travelled from Harwich to Colchester in Essex and on to east London earlier than making their technique to the South Downs the place they went “off grid” and slept in a “flimsy” tent, the court docket heard.

Mr Little advised jurors that Marten got here from a “very wealthy family” and had a belief fund so she may have purchased no matter she wanted.

But having dumped a buggy hours after buying it, the defendants transferred the infant to a Lidl bag for all times the place she spent a few of her life, it was claimed.

Mr Little advised jurors: “They put their relationship and their views of life before the life of a little baby girl.

“Rather than act in the obvious best interests of a vulnerable baby and one that they should have cared for and looked after, they decided instead that they knew best.

“They decided to ignore the advice that they had previously been given. They decided that in the middle of winter and in obviously dangerous weather conditions they would deprive the baby of what it needed – warmth, shelter, protection and food and ultimately safety.

“They essentially went off-grid and lived in a tent with hardly any clothes, no means of keeping and remaining warm and dry and with scarcely any food.”

He stated the defendants’ determination to camp on the South Downs raised the danger of hypothermia and suffocation.

It was their “grossly negligent and obviously dangerous conduct” that prompted the dying of the infant, jurors have been advised.

Mr Little added: “After the baby died, in January 2023, the defendants did not hand themselves in but instead remained off-grid, trying to hide for a number of weeks, leaving the body of their dead baby in a shopping bag covered in rubbish, which they carried around and then left in a disused shed.”

Jurors have been advised the defendants have been convicted at an earlier trial of concealing the beginning of a kid and perverting the course of justice.

The defendants, of no mounted tackle, have denied manslaughter and a second cost of inflicting or permitting the dying of a kid between January 4 and February 27 2023.

Earlier, jurors have been advised that Gordon was not within the dock with Marten however that he would possibly be a part of the proceedings later by video hyperlink.

Judge Mark Lucraft KC warned jurors in opposition to doing any analysis in regards to the case or “jumping to any conclusions” earlier than listening to all of the proof.

The Old Bailey retrial is predicted to final for as much as eight weeks.