The heartbreaking moment a missing baby girl was found dead under rubbish stuffed inside a Lidl supermarket bag has been shown in court. Wealthy aristocrat Constance Marten, and her partner Mark Gordon, 49, had refused to tell police where their daughter Victoria was after the pair were tracked down by police to Brighton, East Sussex.
It wasn't until days later, that police made the grim discovery of the child's remains in a disused shed on an allotment near to where the couple had been detained. On Wednesday, the defendants sat in the Old Bailey dock as police bodyworn video was played of the moment baby Victoria was finally found on the afternoon of last March 1.
Officers were shown on camera carefully looking inside the red shopping bag which had been placed on decking outside the shed on Lower Roedale Allotments. They could be seen pulling out pieces of rubbish to reveal the baby, whose body was blocked out on the video.
Pc Allen Ralph, who had been sent from Scotland Yard to help in the search, told jurors he had already seen earlier CCTV footage of the distinctive Lidl bag before he and a colleague were sent to search the allotments. As he approached the disused shed, he noticed a broken window and lifted the door to get in.
The first thing he noticed was the smell, he said: "I remember saying 'either something is dead in there or something has died'." Inside there was a tent, out-of-date milk and bread on a makeshift table and the shopping bag underneath, he said.
During a break, Pc Ralph commented to his partner that he was sure he had seen that bag before so they went back to take a closer look. He told jurors: "I lifted it and it was heavy and there was no reason for it to be heavy from what I could see inside. I remember quite clearly there was just a lot of rubbish."
Pc Ralph said there were two baby nappies, a pink baby blanket, drinks cans, cardboard, leaves and other pieces of rubbish. He told how he put on gloves before placing the bag on decking outside the shed to take a closer look at the contents.
As they searched, his colleague indicated that he had seen what looked like the head of a doll, jurors heard. Pc Ralph said: "The head was to the left.
"It was concave, the top of the head. That was what we touched. I unwrapped it two or three times before I got to a part where I could see red pooling.
"A couple of seconds after, we went to the right-hand side. I put my hand down. My hand slipped on something. I looked and that was the baby's leg. My hand was soaking wet." Pc Ralph said the baby was "very pale" and "very cold" to the touch.
The full inventory of the Lidl bag was read out in court including the pink blanket that the baby was wrapped in, a pink baby vest and babygrow. Other items included a black blanket, a can of Budweiser, two Coke cans, two Hollingbury Golf Club scorecards, a glass water bottle refilled with petrol purchased at a Texaco garage on January 12 2023, oil and leaves, two torn Argos carrier bags, one WH Smith bag, several pages of The Sun newspaper dated January 12 2023, and an egg mayonnaise and cress sandwich package.
It was alleged that some of the items were bought by Marten at a Texaco garage in Newhaven last January 12. On being told a baby had been found dead, Marten confirmed the child was hers before starting to cry.
In a police interview played in court, Marten, 36, said she gave birth in Cumbria on Christmas Eve and the baby had died in the Harwich area around January 8. She said: "I had her in my jacket and I hadn't slept properly in quite a few days and erm, I fell asleep holding her sitting up and she, when I woke up, she wasn't alive."
Previously, the court heard how the couple went on the run with their newborn daughter on January 5 last year after their car burst into flames on a motorway near Bolton. Police launched a nationwide search for the missing baby but the defendants travelled across England and ended up living off-grid in a tent on the South Downs for around seven weeks, jurors have heard.
Last February 20, they were caught on CCTV footage carrying a Lidl bag and rummaging through bins outside Hollingbury Golf Club in Brighton. They were arrested on suspicion of child neglect after a member of the public spotted them and called 999 last February 27.
They were taken to separate police stations and repeatedly refused to answer questions about the missing child. Prosecutor Joel Smith told the court: "The police still did not know where the child was, whether the child was alive or dead or even the sex of the child."
At Brighton police station, Marten told officers: "I'm sorry I haven't eaten or slept for a long time. I need to get some sleep before I can make a proper decision." She then answered "no comment" to all questions she was asked before the baby was found.
Gordon was taken to Worthing police station. He got out of a wheelchair and lay on the floor saying his legs were hurting and he was "in pain".
Later, he complained he was receiving "sub-par treatment", saying: "I don't think I should be talked to like I'm a nobody.
"I mean I'm a suspect. I have not committed any crimes, therefore I should have respect. I'm entitled to respect.... I'm in custody but that doesn't mean I'm a dog."
Gordon asked for pills and said he was in "distress" before continuing: "I am the detainee. You can't just take my rights around me ... lock me up and say ah we don't care about your feet, you're fine, just go ahead and get interviewed.
"I feel like I'm scum. I feel like I'm scumbag actually. I feel like I'm a piece of s**t. I feel like that's how I've been treated."
Following the discovery of the baby girl, Gordon continued to say "no comment" to all questions, the court heard.
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.
The Old Bailey trial continues.
