Constance Marten planned to pay someone to smuggle her children abroad, a court heard.

Martin, 36, and her partner Mark Gordon, 49, are on trial over the death of their newborn baby Victoria last winter while they were off the grid.

Jurors at the Old Bailey heard the couple went on the run in January 2023 to save their children after four previous children had been put into care.

They were arrested in Brighton almost two months later, on February 27, and Victoria’s badly decomposed remains were found in a Lidl plastic bag in an allotment shed days later.

Giving evidence during the ongoing trial on Monday, Martin said there were “many people” willing to help her smuggle Victoria out of the country, claiming she could find such services on Gumtree.

The court heard Martin also claimed she was “a good mother and actually I am an excellent mother”.

Jurors were told her plan was to leave the country after finding out she was pregnant with her fifth child.

“Being away from the country, the services and my family, but unfortunately there are precautions when going abroad,” she said.

Marten believes the travel ban was imposed against her following a “private” High Court case in 2019.

She continued: “We will find people who will smuggle us illegally out of the country.”

Martin added that “Plan B” was to stay in the UK but “keep a low profile”.

Asked to elaborate, Martin told the court she wanted to keep Victoria until she was three months old and then hand her over to a carer “who can then try to send her overseas”.

She told the court she would pay the man to take Victoria out of the UK. She said: “It could be a caregiver, a nanny or something. If there’s a will there’s a way, you can always find someone to help.”

Marten also insisted that she should get to know the caregiver before handing over the children and hoped to find someone who could register Victoria in her own name.

Martin previously said Victoria would not be able to register her daughter’s birth in person without notifying authorities if she needed to, but planned to use private medical services.

Asked if it would be difficult for others to register the birth, Martin said: “I’m sure these things are possible. I would do anything to save my baby.”

“When I woke up, she was dead”

During proceedings last week, Martin described how Victoria died in her arms on January 9.

She said: “I put her in my jacket and when I woke up, my head was on the floor. When I sat up, when I woke up, she was dead.”

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 trial continues.