Constance Marten has instructed her trial she “feels responsible” over the demise of her child daughter, who died whereas she and her accomplice had been on the run.
Marten, 36, who’s from a rich household, mentioned she and Mark Gordon, 49, tried to disguise themselves with caps and glasses to keep away from the authorities.
A nationwide search was launched after a placenta was discovered within the couple’s burnt-out automobile by the motorway close to Bolton, Greater Manchester, on 5 January 2023.
Prosecutors say they went on the run, residing off-grid in a tent on the South Downs in wintry circumstances, so they may maintain their child daughter Victoria as a result of their earlier 4 youngsters had been taken into care.
Marten has instructed jurors Victoria died when she fell asleep within the tent whereas holding her underneath her jacket on 9 January.
Her badly decomposed physique was present in a Lidl bag inside an allotment shed in Brighton, East Sussex, on 1 March final yr, days after the couple had been arrested on 27 February.
While the reason for her demise is “unascertained”, jurors have heard she might have died from the chilly or co-sleeping.
Giving proof on the Old Bailey for a second day, Marten mentioned: “She’s my pride and joy. I had four kids, I know how to look after children.
“My major concern was Victoria, we had taken care nice of her. I do really feel responsible for falling asleep on her, I do really feel accountable if that is what occurred… however the post-mortem is not conclusive.”
Marten said she and Gordon camped on the South Downs following Victoria’s death, occasionally venturing into Brighton where they bought clothes “to make use of as a disguise”, including “glasses and caps to cover how we regarded, change our look”.
“I do not suppose we had been actually pondering, we had 100 various things going by our heads. I believe we wished to put low and conceal away from individuals,” she said.
“I do not suppose I used to be actually pondering. I believe we had been simply in a heightened state of grief and worry. I saved toying with the concept of handing myself in,” she said.
But Marten said, “I used to be too scared” because of the media coverage.
“I assumed individuals wished one thing damaging to have occurred and would not consider the reality so I panicked and did not wish to hand myself in, so we simply lived wild.”
She said they usually carried Victoria’s body with them in a Lidl shopping bag, but when they went to a shop to buy food on 27 February, they left her in the allotment shed they had been sleeping in.
She said the way they were living had become “unsustainable”, with Gordon “anorexically skinny” and hobbling and they had been sharing one piece of bread out of the bin.
“I used to be too weak to hold something,” she said, adding that when she was arrested: “I used to be scared, terrified” of this happening – what’s happening now.”
She mentioned she thought the media “would have an absolute field day with us”.
“We had been number one in the news for so long, I didn’t have any trust in the system,” she mentioned.
“I just think there had been so much media presence and the truth wouldn’t be accepted and they just wanted to make us out as awful people basically so I wasn’t prepared to tell them what happened.”
But she mentioned there was “no point” in saying no remark after police discovered her child’s physique.
The defendants, of no mounted tackle, deny manslaughter by gross negligence, perverting the course of justice, concealing the start of a kid, youngster cruelty and inflicting or permitting the demise of a kid.
The trial continues.
Source: information.sky.com”