Constance Marten claims they will hand over baby Victoria

Constance Marten claims she and Mark Gordon planned to hand over their baby if they couldn’t find a house to rent before the newborn died in freezing camping conditions.

The aristocrat insisted she and her partner Gordon, 49, never intended to live in a tent “for months on end” after fleeing with their daughter Victoria to prevent her from being looked after.

The parents deny gross manslaughter of the baby, who died after being zip-tied into Martin’s jacket while they were camping in the South Downs last winter.

Continuing her cross-examination at the Old Bailey, Marten, 36, told Joel Smith KC they bought a tent to “get away from prying eyes” for a day or two as “the whole country” searched for them in a high-profile police raid. .

“First the police and my family were looking for us, then the whole country, so we thought we’d go somewhere or stay away from prying eyes for a day or two,” she told the court.

“We said if we couldn’t find a house in the next day or two we might have to hand Victoria over. Because it was never our intention to stay there for any length of time.”

Marten claimed that on January 9, she woke up to find the baby dead inside her jacket.

She insists they took her off the grid out of love and did not want her to be cared for like their four other children.

“That’s because we loved her so much. We felt we had to save our child from being separated from his parents and potentially entering a place where neglect was rampant,” she said, adding that her actions were “the opposite of neglect.”

When she questioned the safety of raising babies in tents, she told Mr Smith you “could probably arrest half the people in the world for raising babies in tents”.

When the couple were arrested on February 27 last year after 53 days on the run, their parents were living in a derelict shed in Brighton, where baby Victoria’s body was eventually found wrapped in rubbish in a Lidl bag. cover.

Earlier this month, Marten argued that life in their tents in the South Downs was seen from a “Western perspective,” adding that Bedouin families walked through the cold desert with their children, while others Living in a shantytown.

Asked if she was responsible for her child’s death, Martin broke down in tears, replying: “I certainly think, to some degree, as her mom, I’m responsible for her death, but at the same time I have to Love yourself and forgive yourself because this is a really bad situation but I don’t want to fall asleep.

“I live in sadness because she died in my arms.”

Victoria’s body was found in a red Lidl bag on March 1, 2023, just days after her parents were caught and arrested by police after weeks on the run.

Prosecutors allege the couple’s “reckless and completely selfish” behavior resulted in the “entirely avoidable” death of the newborn.

The defendant, of no fixed address, denies gross negligence, perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, child abuse and manslaughter of causing or allowing the death of a child.

The Old Bailey trial continues.