Constance Marten’s baby seen for first time in CCTV shown to trial
died after a wealthy aristocrat and her partner spent weeks living off-grid in freezing conditions.The prosecution claim the “reckless, utterly selfish and callous” conduct of Constance Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, 49, who kept their daughter secret and went on the run to stop her being taken into care, led to the death of the newborn.The tiny infant, named Victoria, was captured on camera wrapped in a blanket zipped inside Marten’s coat in CCTV footage played to the Old Bailey in the second week of their trial for gross negligence manslaughter.Marten, wearing a facemask with a scarf wrapped around her head, was seen cradling the newborn outside a shop as she unzipped a red padded jacket to re-position the baby in footage captured in East Ham, east London, on 7 January last year.Source: Met Police/ PA.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 (gentle music)
00:02 A jury has been shown CCTV containing the first glimpses
00:16 of Constance Martin and Mark Gordon's baby.
00:18 Baby Victoria was later found dead
00:20 in a disused allotment shed in Brighton.
00:23 The couple became front page news in January, 2023,
00:27 when Greater Manchester Police
00:28 launched a missing persons inquiry
00:30 after finding a placenta in the couple's burnt out car
00:33 on a motorway near Bolton.
00:35 Martin, 36, and Gordon, 49,
00:38 are on trial for the gross negligence manslaughter
00:41 of baby Victoria,
00:42 as well as perverting the course of justice,
00:44 concealing the birth of a child, and child cruelty.
00:48 On January the 30th, 2024,
00:50 the jury was shown CCTV footage of the family arriving
00:54 by taxi in East Ham, London.
00:56 Gordon can be seen passing the baby out of a cab to Martin.
01:00 Further CCTV of Martin standing in the street
01:03 shows her unzipping her jacket to reveal the baby.
01:06 Jurors then viewed a clip of Martin sat at a table
01:09 in a German Doner kebab shop
01:11 while Gordon buys a buggy in Argos.
01:14 When Gordon returns, Martin puts the baby into the buggy.
01:17 They were later caught on CCTV
01:19 pushing the buggy in Whitechapel, London.
01:22 Gordon sat in the dock and covered his face with his hands
01:25 as the footage was shown in court.
01:27 The trial continues.
01:29 (music fades)