Constance Marten trial: Baby Victoria 'died in Essex'

Constance Marten, 36, and her partner Mark Gordon, 49, had refused to tell police where their daughter Victoria was after the fugitive couple were tracked down by police in Brighton.

Days later, police made the grim discovery of the child’s remains in a disused shed on an allotment close to where they had been detained.

In a police interview played in court, Marten said she gave birth in Cumbria on Christmas Eve 2022 and the baby had died in the Harwich area around January 8.

The shed where baby Victoria was found (Image: Met Police)

She said: “I had her in my jacket and I hadn’t slept properly in quite a few days and erm, I fell asleep holding her sitting up and she, when I woke up, she wasn’t alive.”

Marten went on to say that she wanted to keep Victoria with her after her other four children were taken away.

On Wednesday, the defendants sat in the Old Bailey dock as police bodyworn video was played of the moment baby Victoria was finally found on the afternoon of last March 1.

Officers were seen pulling out pieces of rubbish to reveal the baby, whose body was blocked out on the video.

CCTV footage of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon walking into Bolton bus interchange with the baby allegedly underneath Marten’s coat was shown in court during their trial (Image: PA)

PC Allen Ralph told jurors he had already seen earlier CCTV footage of the distinctive Lidl bag before he was deployed with a colleague to search the allotments.

He said: “I remember saying ‘either something is dead in there or something has died’.”

When the baby died, Marten considered giving her a “proper burial” but did not want the child to be eaten by animals.

Previously, the court heard how the couple went on the run with their newborn daughter on January 5 last year after their car burst into flames on a motorway near Bolton.

Last February 20, they were caught on CCTV footage carrying a Lidl bag and rummaging through bins.

They were arrested on suspicion of child neglect after a member of the public spotted them and called 999 last February 27.

The defendants, of no fixed address, deny manslaughter by gross negligence, perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty and causing or allowing the death of a child.

The trial was adjourned until Monday.