UK - Constance Marten & Mark Gordon charged, Newborn (found deceased), Bolton Greater Manchester, 5 Jan 2023 #4

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Aristocrat Constance Marten and her lover trashed holiday cottage while on the run with their newborn baby by leaving wine stains on a quilt, urine on the floor and cat litter on living room chairs, court hears

 
That's a very grim image (the bold bit).

Considering how determined they seem to be to live life on their own terms, reject conventional lifestyles, avoid standard wellbeing choices like antenatal care, vaccination etc, and generally evade the input of the authorities, it's interesting to me how often CM seems to have turned up voluntarily at NHS facilities - not just in 2017 to give birth to Child 1, but then later with Child 4 (the one she left behind, having discharged herself), at a minimum.

I wonder if she came to see NHS workers, with their statutory duties, as being as much her enemy as SS, which would explain the stubborn refusal to get help or care for Victoria.

There's no humour in any of this, but I can't help a hollow laugh at the idea of her being spotted faking an Irish accent. I guess she wasn't quite such a "gifted actress" after all.

JMO/MOO

I am surprised she gave birth in hospitals once they were suspicious of the authorities. Home births are relatively common place in the U.K, more so in London than elsewhere. There is also a growing (all be it small) number of people who opt for free births.
 
Aristocrat Constance Marten and her lover trashed holiday cottage while on the run with their newborn baby by leaving wine stains on a quilt, urine on the floor and cat litter on living room chairs, court hears

You are doing brilliantly at keeping up with the trial and sharing. Thank you.
 
It's possible that they knew a lot of underground people and had access to drug dens or what I would.call "smack houses" where a few quid in cash would be welcomed for a roof over their heads. BTW I have a particular interest in this case as I knew one of the defendants very well for a few years prior to them meeting one another. JMO
MOO
Yes, that's the kind of accommodation I was alluding to, not rooms let out on the basis of written contracts and deposit protection in areas where there's a rental demand from young professionals.
 
Just thought I would throw this in... The prosecutor in his opening speech said that the Crown will seek to show that CM used an Irish accent when she was in labour with Child FF in a Welsh hospital in 2017.

That's not something that every non-Irish person can do at the drop of a hat. It's not like doing an Ian Paisley impersonation for 10 seconds.

But CM speaks Arabic. She studied the language to fluency in the course of her bachelor's degree at Leeds.
Then in 2016 she attended acting school.
So she does have experience with phonemics as well as skills at articulation. It might not be too difficult for her to bring off a convincing Irish Traveller accent.

^ Speculation.
 
Here is a timeline of events leading up to the defendants’ arrest, as laid out by the prosecution:

– December 20 2022

Gordon and Marten booked into a holiday cottage in Northumberland, after making an online booking until December 26. The property owners found the cottage left in a “disgusting state” on December 28, jurors heard.

– December 28

The defendants’ Suzuki car broke down on the M18 motorway between junctions 5 and 6, and a recovery driver took them to a Sainsbury’s supermarket nearby. Gordon initially asked to be taken to Thorne in South Yorkshire. No baby is seen or heard by the recovery driver.

– January 4 2023

The couple moved across the Pennines and checked into the Ibis hotel at the Lymm Services in Cheshire in the early hours of the morning. Later the same day, they also checked into the AC Hotel in Manchester.

– January 5

A Peugeot 206 car being used by the defendants caught fire on the M61 motorway in Greater Manchester, causing them to flee. Marten’s passport, “burner” phones and a placenta wrapped in a towel were discarded in the wreckage, jurors were told.

A high-risk missing persons inquiry was then launched and the couple became front-page news, the court was told. The defendants were picked up by a member of the public and taken to a Morrisons store in Bolton, where they arrived just before 8pm.

From the nearby Bolton Interchange station, the defendants took a taxi to Liverpool before they instructed another taxi to drive them around 270 miles to Harwich in Essex.

– January 6

The couple arrived in Harwich in the early hours of the morning and checked into a Premier Inn hotel at about 3am. In the evening, they moved to another hotel in town, the Fryatt Hotel, where they paid in cash.

– January 7

The defendants checked out of the Fryatt Hotel just before 7am and took a taxi to Colchester. Another taxi was taken later that morning from Colchester to High Street North in East Ham, east London.

Gordon and Marten visited an Argos store where they bought a buggy, before they took a taxi from East Ham to Whitehchapel. They ate that evening in a restaurant in Brick Lane.

The defendants dumped the buggy they had bought earlier that day, the court heard. It is alleged the baby was transferred to a Lidl bag-for-life where she spent much of the rest of her life.

– January 8

The defendants travelled by taxi to north London and arrived just after midnight, before they spent £475 on a taxi from Hornsey to Newhaven in East Sussex. They arrived in Newhaven just before 5am and walked to the South Downs National Park.

Marten entered a Texaco petrol station and bought snacks and petrol with cash. There was no sign of the baby.

– January 16

A dog walker saw the defendants’ tent set up in Stanmer Park Nature Reserve in the South Downs. Gordon was seen getting out of a tent and carrying a bag-for-life. The tent was not in the same position a week later.

In the same month, they were also seen on a rural path near the Seven Sisters cliffs.

– February 16/17

Another dog walker saw the defendants near Hollingbury Golf Course in rural Sussex. They were pushing a buggy but the witness did not see a baby.

– February 17

A witness noticed the defendants’ tent set up in Coldean Lane in Brighton.

– February 18

A driver noticed the defendants together in the area of Coldean Lane walking towards Stanmer Park. Marten appeared to have something under her puffer jacket.

– February 19

Gordon and Marten were seen in Stanmer Park with their blue tent. Marten was carrying a very young baby with a wobbly head, but the baby had no socks on, no blanket and no hat on.

– February 20

The defendants were captured on CCTV trying and failing to break in to Hollingbury Golf Course and were “scavenging for food from the bins”, jurors heard.

– February 27

Marten and Gordon smelled “very unpleasant” as they were arrested in Hollingbury Place in Brighton, jurors heard. They were carrying furniture stuffing and paper in their clothing for extra warmth.


first time poster here but long term watcher since this awful case started. I’ve been baffled as to their behaviour, and now the evidence of trashing places, cat litter, empty or urine filled bottles in particular <modsnip: sub judice>
 
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US police finally caught up with him a month later on June 13, 1989, when he confessed to both raids and was jailed for 40 years.

In 2010, having served half of his sentence
, he was deported to the UK and put on the sex offenders register.






by my calculations, he still has almost 6 years to go on his sentence. ( dependent on how much time on remand is taken off the charge - arrested 1989, convicted 1990 )
I'm not sure how the US early release system works, but if he was (essentially) paroled after half his sentence, he can surely be recalled to prison to serve the other half? In which case, he'd be looking at doing another 20 years.

That's how it works with UK life sentences (I think) - you may get out early for good behaviour, but if so, and you then breach parole conditions, you can be recalled to prison at any point, indefinitely. In that sense, these still are 'life' sentences.

Of course, I don't imagine the US will be seeking his extradition simply in order to pay for him to do another 20 years.
 
Why was he filming the car fire?!
It's normal for many people nowadays to pick their phones all the time and live their lives through them. Perhaps they think it gives them a truer experience of the world.

Ken Hudson was cross-examined by Tom Godfrey, so in answer to my own previous question CM has at least him representing her in court today and they haven't agreed not to contest today's evidence. Gotta wonder what her KC has been working on.

Hudson:

"Throughout the year [since Victoria's death] I have been cut up myself because I believe that if I had stayed with that vehicle and the people that that baby may still be alive."

The Argus doesn't report whether or not the judge instructed the witness to stay on what he saw and heard and not to state his beliefs or opinions unless they go to his reasons for doing something, the likelihood that he's remembering accurately, etc.
 
'account given by Marten in interview that the child died somehow when she fell asleep sitting up and cross legged.

'The prosecution will invite you to reject what she says

'Indeed how does she know even on her own account what caused the death if she was asleep?

'There has been no explanation of exactly how she smothered or suffocated her child, especially from a sitting position with crossed legs.

defendants would still be guilty of causing the death of their child even if Marten's account about her being smothered was true.

'They knew that there was a significant risk of serious harm from co-sleeping because they had been repeatedly told not to do it before.


 
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon say baby girl died after 16 days, court hears

Couple whose newborn died after they went off-grid camping to evade UK authorities say she was kept ‘warm and dry’

 
In a defence address to the jury, Gordon’s counsel, John Femi-Ola KC, said the defence would maintain baby Victoria was born on 24 December 2022 and died on 9 January 2023.

[…]

A few hours after the couple checked out on 5 January, their replacement car caught fire on the M61, the court heard. Kenneth Hudson, who was driving behind them, said he pulled over on to the hard shoulder to call emergency services at 6.19pm and to offer help. He saw Marten dashing from the flames as Gordon began unloading their possessions.

Hudson said: “I could see she was carrying a bundle, and at the top of that bundle was a baby’s head.” He said he asked Marten: “Is the baby OK?’ And she replied: “She’s fine” before telling him it was OK to leave them.

He said he put his hand on the baby’s head. “It felt quite cold but it was January.” In the 10 minutes he spent on the hard shoulder he said he did not see the baby move or make any noise.

Questioned by defence counsel Tim Godfrey, who said Marten disputed that ever happened and said she would never allow someone to touch her baby’s head, Hudson replied: “I touched the baby’s head. The reason I know was because throughout the year I’ve been cut-up myself, because I believe had I stayed with that vehicle that baby might still be alive.”

Hudson’s son, Jack, who was travelling with his father, also told the court he could see the baby’s head out of the top of the blankets.

The case continues.

 
I'm confused, did they have a cat with them? What was the cat litter for?

Trying to catch up on the last few days of this thread
Yes I don't get the cat litter thing. Also there was no need for them to trash that cottage, even if she did give birth there there was no need to urinate kn the floors or leave it in that state.
 
Mr Little told the court: "the two defendants had discussed telling a contrived lie about the death to suggest that they were not responsible for the death.
"Why do that – if there was nothing to hide? Why fail to report the death if there was nothing to hide?"

Marten also discussed what she had thought of doing with the baby's body
Mark and I hadn’t eaten in a long time, it just became impossible to carry it, so sometimes we actually had to leave it in the tent or erm, in the allotment, we left it in there because it was just too, too heavy.
And also I’d put earth over her. Erm, because it started to smell

Gordon suggested Marten had been suffering from "post traumatic distress".
Gordon commented: “Nobody could have ever have anticipated or looked into the glass and seen that happening”.

Mr Little -: "Nobody could have anticipated death. Really? This was a newborn baby. It was freezing cold. No help was sought. The risk was blindingly obvious.




more detail at the link.....







 
She says she wanted to preserve the baby’s body for an autopsy but if you remember they wouldn’t disclose the location of the baby when they were arrested. That’s very contradictory and just seems to be a blatant lie.
I personally think they are lying about lots of things...birth date and death date and cause of death especially
 
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