Constance Marten’s baby was ‘found dead in a locked shed wrapped in a plastic bag,’ court hears

Aristocrat Constance Marten’s baby was ‘a girl named Victoria’, it was confirmed after the mother and her lover appeared in court today charged with the manslaughter of their newborn.

Marten, 35, and his partner Mark Gordon, 48, appeared before magistrates in Crawley, where the court heard the baby was found dead in a locked shed wrapped in a plastic bag under a pile of nappies.

The couple have been taken into custody on charges of manslaughter, perverting the course of justice and concealing the birth of a child.

The baby’s gender and name were confirmed by a court clerk after the brief hearing.

As the post-mortem on the newborn baby was due to begin, the couple were taken from the cells to Court 1. Gordon entered the dock first wearing a gray sweatshirt and trousers and a gray sweatshirt over his head. Marten entered the dock next in a similar outfit. She smiled when she saw Gordon and leaned in to greet him.

Constance Marten, 35, who disappeared with her lover Mark Gordon, 48

The two sat at opposite ends of the bench and were separated by two security agents, but spoke to each other while they waited for the magistrates to arrive.

Marten, who has long curly brown hair, smiled as he sat on the bench while Gordon looked serious and kept his sweatshirt on his head.

Jeremy King, prosecutor, said: “It was on January 5th of this year, a placenta was discovered in an abandoned motor vehicle with Miss Marten’s passport next to it.” Miss Marten had been in a relationship with Mr Gordon since 2015.

He said a missing persons campaign was launched.

King said the couple had been traveling around the country using taxis and staying in hotels. In Whitechapel they were seen shopping for camping equipment and were last seen in Newhaven on CCTV near the ferry.

King said: ‘They initially refused to answer any questions from the police. An exhaustive search was conducted in a weedy allotment parcel.

‘Inside a locked shed, wrapped in a plastic bag under nappies, the baby was found inside. Life was declared extinct.

Crawley magistrates were told the court case would be transferred to London’s Central Criminal Court.

Gordon and Marten were arrested Monday after police spent several weeks searching for them.

Lewes Power KQ, defending Marten, said that while there would not be a bail application on Marten’s behalf today, but that he was ‘notifying the court’, there would be one at a future date.

The arrest of aristocrats Marten and Gordon in the Hollingbury area of ​​Brighton capped a nationwide police manhunt that began when they fled seven weeks ago with their baby.

However, the couple did not have their newborn baby when officers swooped in to arrest them.

Sussex detectives and the Metropolitan Police have launched a massive search of a public plot of land close to where they were arrested.

Search teams with sniffer dogs, drones, helicopters and officers wearing heat-seeking kits battled to find the body.

They alerted the police, who immediately pounced on an area of ​​woods and parcels that had not yet been searched by the officers.

At a news conference, Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford said it was clear the baby’s remains had been there for “several weeks”.

They said it’s also too soon to provide a specific date of death.

An autopsy should be performed today by a specialist pediatric pathologist.

Marten and Gordon will appear before the Central Criminal Court on March 31.