The Old Bailey heard how Constance Marten and Mark Gordon got to Sussex after getting a taxi from Whitechapel to Newhaven on January 8.
Marten, 36, and Gordon, 49, are on trial over the death of their baby Victoria who was found dead in a disused shed in Brighton on March 1.
Last January 12, Marten was captured on film at a Texaco garage in East Sussex, jurors were told.
After that the “trail went cold” until February 20 when they were spotted near Hollingbury Golf Course, John Smith, prosecuting, said.
Read more: Updates as witnesses tell of seeing Constance Marten and Mark Gordon in Brighton
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 in the outskirts of Brighton where they were arrested on February 27.
Dog walker Paul Rogers told the court he saw the defendants near the golf course.
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 of the little girl between January 4 and February 27 last year.
They are also charged with perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty, and causing or allowing the death of a child, which they deny.
The trial continues.
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