Constance Marten’s newborn baby seen for first time in images shown to jury

Jurors have been show the first clear footage of a newborn baby who died after her parents went on the run from police for almost two months.

Constance Marten, 36, and her partner Mark Gordon, 49, dney the manslaughter of baby Victoria and are on trial at the Old Bailey in London.

In February last year, the pair were arrested in East Sussex and Victoria’s body was found in a Lidl supermarket bag covered in rubbish inside a disused shed.

Last January, Greater Manchester Police launched a missing persons inquiry after finding a placenta in the couple’s burnt-out car on a motorway near Bolton, Lancashire.

It is alleged the couple, whose four other children were taken into care before they went missing, travelled across England and lived off-grid in a bid to keep their daughter, as they looked for a way to escape the UK.

Footage shows the dark-haired child dressed in a babygrow, with her hands and arms moving around.

Previously, the court was shown CCTV of the couple, in which Marten is seen with the child bundled beneath her jacket.

New footage shows the pair arriving at East Ham, London in a taxi. Gordon is seen passing the baby out of the cab to Marten, who was standing near its rear door, as the child curls and moves its fingers.

Further CCTV of Marten shows her standing in the street, before unzipping her jacket to reveal the baby and appearing to cradle it in her arms.

Another clip shows Gordon buying a buggy in Argos while Marten sits at a table in a German Doner Kebab fast food outlet.

When Gordon returns, Marten puts down the baby, which is wrapped in a red scarf.

Prosecutor Joel Smith told jurors: “You can see while Ms Marten is assembling the buggy the baby’s arms moving to her left.”

Gordon sat in the dock and covered his face with his hand as the footage was shown in court.

His defence barrister, John Femi-Ola KC, spoke briefly to him and asked for a short break as his client was finding it “quite stressful”.

Marten, who was later captured on camera buying a dummy in Boots, has not attended court for her trial.

Jurors were told the couple went on to Whitechapel, east London, where Gordon bought a tent at Argos before heading to Newhaven in East Sussex.

CCTV footage showed him in the shop wearing plastic bags on his shoes.

The couple spent hundreds of pounds on taxis taking them from the North West to Essex and on to east London, the court heard.

Cab driver Colette Franklin, who took the defendants from Harwich to Colchester for £30, described how Gordon “slid down his seat” when a police car came towards them.

On arriving at East Ham, Gordon passed the baby out of another cab to Marten, who was standing near the door.

On 12 January last year, Marten was captured on film at a Texaco garage in East Sussex.

After this there was no reported sightings until last 20 February when they were spotted near a golf course clubhouse, Mr Smith said.

He told jurors that by then Gordon was using a branch as a makeshift walking stick and the defendants were “rummaging through bins”.

They were finally tracked down on the outskirts of Brighton, where they were arrested last February 27.

Dog walker Paul Rogers told the court he saw the defendants near Hollingbury golf course in Brighton.

He said: “As I got closer to them I noticed they looked a bit dishevelled, a bit dirty, possibly homeless people.

“The man was carrying plastic bags, a bag in each hand. The woman was pushing a buggy. They didn’t have anything else with them.

“I do not recall whether there was anything in the buggy.”

Mr Smith asked: “At any point, did you see or hear a baby?”

Mr Rogers said: “I didn’t, no.”

Motorist Tim Morris was in Coldean Lane, Brighton, on the morning of last February 18 when he saw a couple he thought were the defendants, the court was told.

He told jurors: “The thing I noticed about the lady was she had a big coat on with something underneath. The coat was done up. I straight away thought there was a child under the coat and it was being kept warm.

“It seemed quite odd she was quite far behind [the man] and almost dragging her heels. It didn’t seem right.

“I said to my partner, ‘They look like that couple in the news,’ and she said, ‘Yes, there’s definitely something beneath the coat and it could be a little ‘un.’”

The defendants, of no fixed address, deny manslaughter by gross negligence between January 4 and February 27 last year.

They also deny perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty and causing or allowing the death of a child.

The trial continues.

Additional reporting by Press Association