Images of Constance Marten’s baby seen for first time

Ms Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, her 49-year-old partner, are on trial at Old Bailey accused of manslaughter of baby Victoria

Images of Constance Marten’s baby have been seen for the first time in CCTV footage shown to court.
Ms Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, her 49-year-old partner, are on trial at the Old Bailey accused of the manslaughter of baby Victoria.
It is alleged the couple travelled across England and lived off-grid in a bid to keep their daughter after four other children were taken into care.
Last January, Greater Manchester Police launched a missing persons inquiry after finding a placenta in the couple’s burnt-out car on a motorway near Bolton.
The defendants spent hundreds of pounds on taxis taking them from the north west to Essex and on to east London, the Old Bailey heard.
Last February, Ms Marten and Mr Gordon were arrested in East Sussex and Victoria’s body was found in a supermarket bag, covered in rubbish, inside a disused shed.
Previously, CCTV footage of the couple appeared to show a bulge where the baby had been bundled up beneath Ms  Marten’s coat and wrapped in a blanket or towel.
On Tuesday, jurors were shown video footage clearly showing the dark-haired child dressed in a babygrow, with her hands and arms moving around.
Colette Franklin, a cab driver who took the defendants from Harwich to Colchester in Essex for £30, described how Mr Gordon “slid down his seat” when a police car came towards them.
On arriving at East Ham, east London, Mr Gordon passed Victoria out of another cab to Ms Marten, who was standing near the door. The baby’s fingers were seen curling and moving around in the footage.
Further CCTV of Ms Marten standing in the street showed her unzipping her jacket to reveal the baby. She appeared to cradle the child in her arms to comfort her.
Jurors then viewed a clip of Mr Gordon buying a buggy in an Argos store while Ms Marten sat at a table in a German doner kebab shop. When Mr Gordon returned, Ms Marten put the baby, wrapped in a red scarf, down.
Joel Smith, prosecuting, told jurors: “You can see, while Ms Marten is assembling the buggy, the baby’s arms moving to her left.”
Mr Gordon sat in the dock and covered his face with his hand as the footage was shown. John Femi-Ola KC, his defence barrister, spoke to him briefly and then asked for a short break because his client was finding it “quite stressful”.
Ms Marten, who was later captured on camera buying a dummy in Boots, has not attended court for her trial.
Jurors were told the couple went on to Whitechapel, east London, where Mr Gordon bought a tent at Argos, before heading to Newhaven, East Sussex.
CCTV footage showed Mr Gordon in the shop wearing plastic bags on his shoes. Jurors were shown a receipt for the purchase of items including a children’s “pro-active unicorn” sleeping bag and tent, totalling £91.51, which was paid in cash.
On Jan 12 last year, Ms Marten was captured on film at a Texaco garage in East Sussex, jurors were told. After that, the “trail went cold” until Feb 20 when they were spotted near a golf course clubhouse, Mr Smith said. He told jurors that by then Mr Gordon was using a branch as a makeshift walking stick and the defendants were “rummaging through bins”.
They were finally tracked down on the outskirts of Brighton, where they were arrested on Feb 27.
Paul Rogers, a dog walker, told the court he saw the defendants near Hollingbury golf course in Brighton, adding: “As I got closer to them I noticed they looked a bit dishevelled, a bit dirty, possibly homeless people.
“The man was carrying plastic bags, a bag in each hand. The woman was pushing a buggy. They didn’t have anything else with them. I do not recall whether there was anything in the buggy.”
Mr Smith asked: “At any point, did you see or hear a baby?” Mr Rogers said: “I didn’t, no.”
Tim Morris, a motorist, was in Coldean Lane, Brighton, on the morning of Feb 18 when he saw a couple he thought were the defendants, the court was told.
He told jurors: “The thing I noticed about the lady was she had a big coat on with something underneath. The coat was done up. I straight away thought there was a child under the coat and it was being kept warm. It seemed quite odd she was quite far behind [the man] and almost dragging her heels. It didn’t seem right.
“I said to my partner: ‘They look like that couple in the news,’ and she said: ‘Yes, there’s definitely something beneath the coat and it could be a little ’un’.”
The defendants, of no fixed address, deny manslaughter by gross negligence of the little girl between Jan 4 and Feb 27 last year.
They are also charged with perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty and causing or allowing the death of a child.