Runaway aristocrat saved child in ‘Lidl bag’ then dumped her ‘like garbage’

An aristocrat and her companion saved their child in a Lidl bag earlier than dumping her “like refuse”, a court docket has heard.

Constance Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, 49, allegedly saved the beginning of their baby a secret after she fell pregnant in early 2022. Little Victoria was then taken on the run by the pair to cease her from being taken away from them, a court docket has been instructed.

The Old Bailey heard they stayed in a “thin and flimsy” tent within the depths of winter whereas on the run. Before she died, the newborn allegedly “spent much of her life” in a Lidl bag for all times. She was later discovered lifeless in a service bag coated in garbage in an deserted shed like “refuse”.

Tom Little KC opened the case as we speak (Thursday, January 25) and described “the entirely avoidable death of a young baby”.

The prosecutor stated: “A young baby girl who would still, we say, be alive if it was not for the reckless, utterly selfish, callous, cruel, arrogant and ultimately grossly negligent conduct of the two defendants on trial. They were the parents of that young baby girl.

“They put their relationship and their view of life before the life of that little baby girl. Rather than act in the obvious best interests of a vulnerable baby, one that they should have cared for and looked after, they decided instead that they knew best.

“They determined that they knew higher than anybody else. No matter who they had been. They determined to disregard the recommendation they’d beforehand been given.

“And it was their selfish desire to keep their baby girl that led inexorably to the death of that very baby.”

They had been additionally stated to “deprive the baby of what she needed” which included “warmth, shelter and food and ultimately safety”, the court docket heard.

Mr Little stated: “When the hunt by the authorities to find them, which became national front page news almost exactly a year ago, intensified – so their desperate selfishness increased and so did the risks and dangers to that baby.

“This led to them tenting in freezing and clearly harmful circumstances on the South Downs with inadequate clothes, tools and meals by no means as soon as in search of any medical consideration or help. And it was this grossly negligent and clearly harmful conduct that prompted the demise of their child daughter and which ends up in them sitting earlier than you on trial on the Old Bailey.”

Marten and Gordon deny manslaughter by gross negligence, concealment of the beginning of a kid, cruelty to an individual below 16 and perverting the course of justice in addition to inflicting or permitting the demise of a kid, an alternate cost to manslaughter, from January 4 and February 27 final 12 months.

The six-week-long trial continues.