Constance Marten and Mark Gordon trial: what the jury has heard

A London taxi driver has told the Old Bailey he had "an uneasy feeling" about Constance Marten and Mark Gordon while giving them a lift in the middle of the night.

Marten, 36, and Gordon, 49, are accused of the manslaughter by gross negligence of their baby Victoria, whose body was discovered in March 2023 after a weeks-long search for the family.

The couple are also accused of cruelty to their child, concealment of her birth, causing or allowing her death, and perverting the course of justice by concealing the body.

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They "became front-page news" last January when Greater Manchester Police launched a missing person's inquiry after finding a placenta in the couple's burnt-out car on a motorway near Bolton, recalled ITV News.

Baby Victoria was found dead later in a Lidl "bag for life" in a shed in Brighton. The couple deny all the charges and the case continues.

'Living off grid'

Prosecutor Tom Little KC told the court that the couple previously had four other children, all of whom had been taken into care after contact from social services. He said that the couple travelled across England and lived off-grid in an attempt to keep hold of Victoria.

On 5 January, a car the family had allegedly been travelling in was discovered on fire in Greater Manchester. When it was searched, a placenta wrapped in a towel was discovered inside. A high-risk missing person's inquiry was launched.

The jury was played footage taken by passing motorist Ken Hudson of the couple's car after it burst into flames, said Sky News. Gordon can be heard offering Hudson money for a lift to the nearest service station. Hudson said he refused the cash and asked if Marten and Gordon's baby was OK. Marten replied: "She's fine."

Jurors were told of items that police found near the car, including a bible, a bag of more than 30 mobile phones, used nappies and a cat in a cat box.

Drivers' suspicions

Taxi drivers' testimonies have formed part of the prosecution's case. The baby was wearing only a nappy on a cold night, according to the taxi driver who drove them from Liverpool to Harwich, Essex. "The baby had no clothes on except a nappy," said Ali Yaryar.

John Femi-Ola KC, defence barrister for Gordon, said the baby was having its nappy changed in the car and that was why "she had no clothes" at that point, the BBC reported.

But another taxi driver testified that he felt "uncomfortable" after picking up the couple, according to a statement read to the court. Abdirisakh Mohamud said he became "suspicious" while driving the couple to a Tesco Extra in Enfield, north London, after they hailed him just after midnight on 8 January 2023, said Sky News.

Mohamud said the male passenger asked if he was a Muslim, whether he was "trustworthy" and if there were cameras in the cab. "Are you sharing this conversation with anyone?" he asked the driver. In another taxi journey, Gordon "slid down in his seat" as a police car came towards them.

'Full view'

On Tuesday, the jury watched CCTV clips of the couple in Colchester and in East Ham in London. Jurors had "heard a lot about the baby", wrote Daniel Sandford, the BBC's home affairs correspondent, but had initially "only seen her as a bump under Ms Marten's coat".

"Suddenly in the court room", continued Sandford, the baby was in "full view on the CCTV". Marten could be seen "bobbing Victoria up and down as if to calm her".

'Trail goes cold'

After travelling from East Ham to Whitechapel, the couple headed to Haringey, north London, from where they took a taxi to Newhaven in East Sussex, where Marten was recorded on CCTV at a petrol station on 8 January.

But after that "the CCTV trail goes cold", Joel Smith for the prosecution told the jury, until 20 February. The couple were recorded by CCTV cameras rummaging in bins near a golf course clubhouse in Brighton. They were arrested seven days later.

'Warm and dry'

But the baby had been kept "warm and dry", a defence barrister insisted. In his opening address to the jury, Gordon's barrister Femi-Ola said: "The baby was kept warm and dry, and was fed such as she was well-nourished. The baby did not require medical assistance."

He added that there was no evidence of any sign of violence, no sign of external or internal injuries and no intention by the couple to pervert the course of justice.

'Aristocratic' background

Marten was named as Tatler's "It" girl in 2008, said The Telegraph last year. She was "born into an aristocratic family" in the palatial settings of Crichel House, a "sprawling country estate in Dorset".

In 2016, shortly after she enrolled on an acting course at East 15 drama school in Essex, she met Mark Gordon. The couple "lived an increasingly isolated existence" and Marten decided to "drop out of acting school and cut ties with much of her family", said the paper.