Constance Marten denies harming baby daughter

On-the-run mother Constance Marten has denied harming her newborn daughter, saying: "I did nothing but show her love."

The 36-year-old from Dorset, and her partner Mark Gordon, 49, are on trial over the death of baby Victoria while living off-grid in a tent on the South Downs in wintry conditions last year.

On Thursday, Marten went into the witness box to give evidence in her defence after Gordon declined the opportunity earlier in the week.

Defence barrister Francis FitzGibbon KC asked her: "Did you do anything to harm baby Victoria?"

Marten replied: "Absolutely not."

Mr FitzGibbon said: "Did you do anything cruel to baby Victoria?"

Marten said: "No. I did nothing but show her love."

She told jurors she did not expose her baby to cold or allow her to get too hot so far as she was aware.

Mr FitzGibbon said: "So far as you are concerned, did you give her anything less than the proper care you thought she deserved?"

Marten replied: "I gave her the best that any mother would, yeah."

She told jurors Victoria died last January 9, saying: "I do not think it is anything I will ever move on from."

She said: "I feel guilty because she was in my arms. I feel like it's not an easy thing to live with", adding: "I think initially it was disbelief, shock, intense grief."

Greater Manchester Police had launched a nationwide search after a placenta was found in the couple's burnt-out car by the motorway near Bolton, Greater Manchester, last January 5.

It is alleged the defendants went on the run because they wanted to keep their daughter, after four other children were taken into care.

Days after the defendants' arrest last February 27, Victoria's badly decomposed body was found in a Lidl bag inside an allotment shed in Brighton, East Sussex.

While the cause of her death is "unascertained", jurors have heard she could have died from the cold or co-sleeping.

Marten told police Victoria died when she fell asleep in the tent while holding her under her jacket.

The court has heard Marten had previously been warned by social workers of the risks of falling asleep with the baby on her and that a tent would be "wholly inappropriate for a baby to live in".

Marten told jurors how she came from a wealthy family and was privately educated before studying Arabic at Leeds University.

She went on to travel extensively to Egypt, India, Nepal, Nigeria, Uganda and South America and worked for Al Jazeera, the Middle Eastern news station.

She met Gordon in 2014 in an shop selling incense and they had a marriage ceremony in Peru two years later, although it was not legally binding.

She said Gordon did not meet her relatives as the relationship with her family had "broken down" and there was a "long history of issues".

Jurors were told how her trust fund was "cut off overnight" when she was heavily pregnant with her first child but by the time of her second, she was being given some £2,000 a month.

Marten denied ever thinking about giving birth in a tent when her first baby was born in 2017.

Mr FitzGibbon asked: "Do you recall being given any advice by anybody at that time about the risk of falling asleep whilst breastfeeding a baby?"

She replied: "I was a few months later when I was in the mother and baby unit."

Marten said she had a "bad experience" with the birth of her first child in the NHS and felt she had made a "bet with the devil" in her dealings with social services.

She said became distrustful after she was advised against giving birth to her second child at home because the baby was "huge".

She said: "I panicked and got a private scan. They said there is nothing wrong, of course you can have a home birth."

Marten also researched hypnobirth, but added: "I do think that you should have scans to check the baby is in the right position and baby is OK but I don't think midwifery is necessary. Once you have had your first child a woman is quite intuitive."

Marten became tearful when she was asked if she had ever harmed any of her five children.

She said: "Absolutely not. Mark and I love our kids more than anything in the world so I'm pretty angry about the fact they had to go through this process. It's not good enough."

Challenged on the prosecution suggestion she and Gordon put their interests ahead of the children, she said: "No, there is literally nothing I would not do for my children."

Ahead of a break in her evidence, Judge Mark Lucraft KC warned her not to speak to anyone and noted seeing Gordon pass her a note before she began her evidence.

He told her: "He must not do that. It's you giving evidence, not him."

The defendants, of no fixed address, deny manslaughter by gross negligence, perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty and causing or allowing the death of a child.

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