Wealthy aristocrat Constance Marten has an 'Upstairs, Downstairs' attitude and ... trends now

Aristocrat Constance Marten has an 'Upstairs, Downstairs' attitude and has told a 'constellation of lies' about her baby daughter's death, a court heard.

Marten, 36, and her boyfriend Gordon, 49, are accused of killing baby Victoria after taking her on the run in January last year to prevent the child being taken away by social services. 

The baby's placenta was found in an exploded car on a Manchester motorway sparking a huge police hunt as the couple spent nearly two months camping in a blue tent in the South Downs near Brighton.

Victoria was later found dead in a Lidl bag for life and prosecutors claim she died from the exposure after weeks in bitterly cold conditions.

Marten claims the baby died in her arms after one night in the tent telling police: 'I believe I fell asleep on top of her.'

The couple had four previous children taken into care which Marten blames on the meddling of her wealthy aristocratic family.

The couple deny manslaughter by gross negligence, concealment of the birth of a child, cruelty to a person under 16 and perverting the course of justice.

In the second day of his closing speech to the jury prosecutor Tom Little, KC, said Marten had mislead the jury by saying Victoria was born on Christmas Eve 2022.

He said she was actually born a week later and this is relevant to how old she was when she died.

There were multiple occasions before the car explosion on 5 January where a witness could have seen a baby or baby equipment but they did not.

Mr Little said: 'Mark Gordon was given ample opportunity in interview to say where the baby was born and he ducked it, why would you duck such an easy question to answer unless you had something to hide?

'Don't ignore where the placenta is found, in a towel in a car, when you consider where this baby was born... On any view there was a total lack of planning.

'Were they really going to smuggle the baby abroad with a nanny? What does that tell you about their parenting?'

He said the defendants had 'acted as a team' by allowing Marten to give one account of what happened while Gordon stayed silent.

Mr Little referred to two witnesses who had stopped to help the couple when their car caught fire by the M61.

'The father and son on the M61, the Hudsons, the good samaritans, pulled over when they saw smoke and then fire.

'They were honest witnesses. You may remember that obvious feeling of guilt that still haunts him because he touched baby Victoria on the head head and he knows if he stayed on the side of road it would all have been different.

'Constance Marten was keen to suggest to Mr Smith (prosecutor Joel Smith) his tone was patronising.

'But it's funny how some people aren't very good at looking in the mirror.

'What did she refer to the Hudsons as? 'Random workmen'. That you may think suggests an obvious sense of misunderstanding - almost an Upstairs, Downstairs mentality.

'Is it she who is patronising, or Mr Smith? It's a matter for you.

'He said he put his hand on the baby's head and said words to the effect of 'God bless, keep safe'.

'Constance Marten says that simply did not happen.

'She has lied to you about why that 'random workman' touched the baby's head.

'It's another lie in a constellation of lies.'

He said Marten was also lying when she said they took some baby clothes for Victoria away from the burning vehicle and he said it was all dumped nearby.

'That baby had nothing more than a baby grow and a vest,' he said.

He said a grieving mother would never have thrown away any of the clothes her baby had worn.

'There is also something you would say is a big fat lie but where there is a grain of truth and 99 grains of falsity.

'That is the idea that in 2022 and 2023 there was some Mission Impossible style private investigators swooping out of the sky and coming from nowhere to detonate vehicles.

'It's fantastical, it's mythical, it didn't happen because you know from the agreed facts there were no private investigators in 2022 or 2023.

'She latched onto things, it's often the sign of a good fraudster, with an aspect of truth somewhere and twists it and warps it.'

Marten's parents have admitted hiring private investigators to find her in 2017 and 2021 but deny employing anyone in 2022 or 2023.

Mr Little said Marten had been 'caught out' in a lie saying she had pretended not to know whether Liverpool had a port before it was revealed she had previously taken a ferry from Liverpool to Ireland.

'No matter how intelligent you are lies will ultimately catch you out - it's a good example of her shameless approach to the truth.

'All evidence on that point is in one direction, apart from the serial liar and nothing from Mark Gordon.'

Mr Little suggested the fact Marten bought a bottle of petrol on 12 January did not mean she was telling the truth about the time the child died.

Marten had claimed she bought the bottle cremate Victoria's body.

'There would be every reason to purchase petrol to light a fire.

'The fact they never go on to do so is beside the point.

'Their presence in the petrol station and purchase of petrol is nothing to point as to whether you accept what Marten says about the death of Victoria.

'Why is she lying about the time of death? Because it got colder and colder in January and that is how the baby died.'

Mr Little said: 'Baby Victoria did not die as a result of some accident.

'Those four children were lawfully taken into care and what

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