Baby ‘screamed in distress’ as fugitive parents refused help, court hears
A witness told how Constance Marten’s baby cried loudly “in distress”, as the doomed infant’s parents refused his help, a court heard.
Marten, 36, and partner Mark Gordon, 49, allegedly spent hundreds of pounds on taxis and lived off-grid before their arrests in East Sussex on February 27 last year. Their newborn daughter was found dead on March 1 inside a Lidl bag covered in rubbish, kept inside a disused shed.
Today, a witness at the trial at the Old Bailey told how he encountered the couple near Harwich port in Essex after watching a news report about their disappearance. Dan Gosling had been walking his dog when he came across them. They told proceedings: “It was freezing cold. There was frost on the floor. There was chill in the air, a fresh January morning to say the least.
“I said ‘Excuse me, are you the people who are on the television advertised as missing with a new baby?’ I cannot remember his exact words but he denied it. I offered them a lift to the hospital. He said he was doing the best for his child, he wanted to keep his family together and do the right thing and something like that. They said they thought they had plans. They knew what they were doing. They said they were trying to go to London to try to see family or friends.”
Mr Gosling said the baby was dressed in a white onesie and wrapped inside Marten’s coat in a towel or blanket and gave the kind of cry he “could not walk away from. When asked if the baby sounded distressed by prosecutor Joel Smith, Mr Gosling answered: “Most definitely”.
Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him
Mr Gosling said he offered to take the couple home with him, give them a cup of tea and then take them to hospital. He added he felt it was the “morally correct thing to do”. He stressed to the couple his concern was for the well-being of the baby and not about anything they had done, the court was told. Gordon just “fobbed” him off, the witness said.
He added: “Ms Marten, she seemed compliant, she was willing to come, maybe have a cup of tea, maybe get a lift to the hospital. She seems a bit swayed. Mr Gordon was quite insistent he was alright. He had a plan, he was going to London to stay with his friends and family.”
Mr Gosling denied a suggestion by Gordon’s defence that he had “embellished” his evidence and that the baby was not crying. He said: “I recall a child screaming to the point where I had to physically turn around and involve myself with people because the child was distressed. It was really traumatising to listen to.”
He added that as a father himself, he knew the difference between ordinary crying and genuine distress. Challenged on if it was a Lidl bag he had seen the couple with, Mr Gosling said he shopped there rather than another supermarket like Waitrose. The trial continues.
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