Constance Marten said she was “distraught” when she discovered her baby Victoria was dead inside her jacket after she fell asleep holding her in a tent in Sussex.
Marten, 36, and her partner Mark Gordon, 49, are on trial at the Old Bailey charged with the manslaughter of their daughter by gross negligence between January 4 and February 27 last year.
Victoria was found in a Lidl bag at the back of a disused shed in allotments off Lynchet Close, Brighton on March 1.
Her parents went on the run from police after their car burst into flames near Bolton, Greater Manchester, last January.
The Old Bailey has heard how they went on to sleep in a tent, in a bid to keep the baby, after the couple’s four other children were taken into care.
Marten and Gordon 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.
They deny all the charges.
Today, jurors continued watching footage of a police interview with Marten after the body of Victoria was found.
A transcript of a second interview with Marten was also read out to the court.
A tearful Marten described waking up to find her daughter dead in her jacket after she had fallen asleep holding her.
She said she and Gordon tried to resuscitate the baby for about ten minutes but that she “definitely wasn’t alive”.
She said they felt “distraught” and that she cradled Victoria for hours.
Marten initially said Victoria had died in the Harwich area and then later said it had happened in Newhaven.
“She was in my jacket and I was keeping her warm, I was holding her and hugging her and I was extremely tired, I hadn’t slept in probably two days, we’d just arrived there I fell asleep with her in my jacket,” she said.
“When I woke up I was crouched over her like that, holding her and she wasn’t moving when I woke up. I don’t know how long I’d been asleep.
“I saw she wasn’t moving and her lips had gone blue.
“I tried to resuscitate her.”
She said she breathed into Victoria’s mouth while Gordon worked on her chest.
Marten said when she breathed into Victoria’s mouth she could hear a “bubbling” noise from her chest like “water”.
“There was no response,” she said.
The court heard Victoria’s body was then put in a Lidl bag.
Marten said when they would leave the tent, they would take Victoria’s body with them in the shopping bag to prevent her “being eaten by an animal”.
“We always carried Victoria with us,” she said.
They moved to the allotments in Brighton at which time the shopping bag became “too heavy”.
“It just became excessively heavy and also Mark and I hadn’t eaten in a long time,” said Marten.
“It just became impossible to carry it, so sometimes we actually had to leave it in the tent or in the allotment.
“I almost fainted it was so heavy.”
She said they put soil in the bag “to try and mask the smell”.
Marten said she had considered handing herself into police and that they debated cremating Victoria’s body or burying her.
They made attempts to dig a grave for Victoria but they were “too weak”.
Marten said she felt “shock, sadness, grief and anger” that they had done so much to keep her and it “ended really badly”.
Marten said that before the tragedy she had been “elated” to be with one of her children and that Victoria was “well looked after” with warm clothes and enough milk.
She said: “I was feeling fine. I was elated to be with her actually. To be with one of my children. With Mark, together and parenting.”
Marten said she and Gordon married in Peru seven years ago but that the marriage was not recognised in England.
She said they met “eight or nine years ago” in a shop in London and went for coffee.
“It went from there,” she said.
“He’s my soulmate.”
Marten appeared in court wearing a white blouse and a red scarf. Gordon was not in court.
The trial continues tomorrow.
Source link
[Featured]
[Just In]
