Constance Marten has instructed the jury at her retrial that she “completely” cherished her child daughter and he or she and Mark Gordon did all the things they might to guard her.
She additionally mentioned that her 4 different youngsters had been “stolen by the state”, and described her household, which she didn’t wish to be a part of, as “bigoted”.
Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, deny gross negligence manslaughter and inflicting or permitting the dying of a kid.
They’re going through a retrial on the Outdated Bailey. Marten had been as a result of begin giving proof on Tuesday however complained of a toothache and headache.
Of their first trial, they have been discovered responsible of concealing the beginning of a kid and perverting the course of justice by not reporting the dying of their child.
The couple’s child Victoria, their fifth youngster, was discovered useless in a shed on a Brighton allotment, in a procuring bag coated in garbage in March 2023. Her physique was so badly decomposed that pathologists couldn’t verify the reason for dying.
Their 4 different youngsters had beforehand been taken into care.
Giving proof for the primary time on Thursday, Marten was requested by her barrister Mr FitzGibbon KC if she cherished her daughter.
“Completely”, Marten replied.
“Did you do something to trigger her hurt?”, Mr FitzGibbon KC requested.
“Completely not. We did all the things we might to guard her”, Marten mentioned.
She was then requested how she felt now about her daughter’s dying.
Marten mentioned: “I do not suppose this course of has actually allowed me to grieve correctly. I nonetheless really feel indignant, upset. Nonetheless a component of shock”.
Requested in regards to the couple’s 4 different youngsters Marten mentioned she “cherished them extraordinarily.”
“Not being with them could be very, very onerous”.
When Mr FitzGibbon KC requested if she agreed with the selections made about taking the youngsters away, Marten mentioned “completely not… it is an absolute outrage”, including that her youngsters have been “stolen by the state”.
Marten instructed the jury that since she was little she all the time wished to have a giant household, including “no less than seven youngsters can be my dream”. She mentioned she would have appreciated to reside on a farm.
She mentioned she met Mark Gordon about 10 years in the past in a store in East London. “I form of see it as destiny,” she mentioned.
Requested how she feels about him, she mentioned: “I like him very a lot”, including that he was “very expensive” to her.
When requested about whether or not she would describe her background as privileged, Marten mentioned “financially sure, emotionally not all”.
She mentioned she tried to introduce Gordon to members of her household, however she discovered them to be “very chilly” in direction of him.
“I’ve all the time had a frosty relationship with my household.
“They are often fairly bigoted. I do not actually wish to be a part of it”, she mentioned.
“I did not actually develop up with them,” she mentioned. “I went to boarding college once I was about eight.”
She mentioned that when she received pregnant with Victoria, she and Gordon had at first deliberate to maneuver overseas however her household intervened.
Consequently, they left their dwelling in London and lived in a collection of accommodations and mattress and breakfasts, she defined, including that within the week earlier than Christmas 2022, they rented a cottage in Northumberland.
On Christmas Eve they went looking for child gear at Primark in Carlisle the place she began feeling that the infant was coming.
“I began having beginning pangs just about as we began leaving Carlisle,” she mentioned.
She drove again to the cottage and mentioned she gave beginning leaning in opposition to the mattress upstairs with out medical help. “It was a really fast beginning truly, Very straightforward,” she mentioned.
Two days later the household moved on once more.
“Clearly it might have been nicer to have been someplace secure and to have been in a position to correctly calm down… however we weren’t in that place”, she instructed the jury.
Earlier within the trial Gordon declined to present proof in his defence.
Opening the defence for his shopper John Femi-Ola KC mentioned: “I don’t suggest to name Mr Gordon.”
The trial continues.
