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A van driver who stopped to help a wealthy aristocrat and her partner after their car burst into flames fears their baby would still be alive if he had stayed with the family.<\/p>\n
Ken Hudson was behind a Peugeot 206 carrying Constance Marten,\u00a036, Mark Gordon, 49, and their newborn baby Victoria when it caught fire on the M61 motorway in Greater Manchester. The eyewitness called the police and fire brigade and stayed at scene for ten minutes before leaving the family at side of the road, a court heard.<\/p>\n
But the couple fled with the child before police arrived, travelling the country by taxi before ending up living off-grid in a tent on the South Downs after weeks on the run.<\/p>\n
Her remains were eventually found in a disused shed, hidden in a Lidl plastic bag and covered in rubbish \u201cas if she was refuse\u201d, the court was told.<\/p>\n
The prosecution allege the newborn died from neglect as a result of exposure or hypothermia or as a result of co-sleeping \u2013 amid parental negligence that was\u00a0\u201ctruly exceptionally bad\u201d and conditions in the tent which were \u201cinhuman\u201d.<\/p>\n
Giving evidence, Mr Hudson told the Old Bailey he started flashing his lights when he saw flames and black smoke coming from the car on his way home from work on 5 January last year.<\/p>\n
He said Marten ran out of the burning vehicle on the hard shoulder, while Gordon opened the boot and started pulling out their possessions.<\/p>\n
When he realised she was carrying a baby, he asked if the child was OK \u2013 to which she replied: \u201cShe\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI put my hand on the babies head and said something like god bless, stay safe,\u201d he told the court, noting that the infant\u2019s head felt cold and she was not moving.<\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the year I have been cut up myself because I believe that if I would have stayed with that vehicle and the people \u2013 that the baby may be still alive,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The trial heard on Friday that the couple\u2019s \u201cbeloved baby\u201d was \u201cwell cared for\u201d.<\/p>\n
John Femi-Ola KC, defending Gordon, said the child died in \u201cheartbreaking\u201d circumstances.<\/p>\n
He told the Old Bailey: \u201cThe defence contends that the baby was warm and dry and always fed so that she was well-nourished.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe baby didn\u2019t require medical assistance and died in circumstances so heartbreakingly described by her mother in an interview with the police.\u201d<\/p>\n
The court previously heard that Marten initially refused to reveal where her she had left her baby when she was arrested on 27 February last year. But after the child\u2019s remains were discovered a few days later, she told officers she had fallen asleep with the baby zipped inside her jacket and awoke to find her dead.<\/p>\n
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon are on trial at the Old Bailey after their baby daughter was found dead in a disused shed (Elizabeth Cook\/PA)<\/p>\n
(PA Wire)<\/p>\n
The parents did not call 999 and kept the child\u2019s remains in a reusable plastic bag for some time, the court heard, before disposing of it in an allotment shed.<\/p>\n
At one point, the parents discussed telling the police it had been a case of \u2018cot death\u2019, the prosecution told jurors.<\/p>\n
Mr Femi-Ola said that the parents had attempted to preserve the remains in the hope of finding out how she died.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is our contention that the body wasn\u2019t disposed of but rather that there was an attempt to preserve the body\u2026 She wanted to find out why her beloved baby died – yes ,her beloved baby. She wanted there to be a postmortem,\u201d he told jurors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crown say they went off grid. As you will listen to evidence you must ask yourself were they driven off the grid?\u201d<\/p>\n
Their defence comes after\u00a0prosecutor Tom Little KC previously told the court how the couple\u2019s \u201creckless, utterly selfish and callous\u201d conduct \u2013 carried out to avoid the child being taken into care like her four siblings \u2013 led to the \u201centirely avoidable\u201d death of the little girl.<\/p>\n
In evidence from DC Martha Bourne, the court heard Marten received two payments from trust funds shortly before going on the run, one of \u00a315,590 on 22 December last year a separate payment of \u00a33,400 on 3 January.<\/p>\n
She had reserved a two-bed holiday cottage in Northumberland for \u00a3367.20 on Booking.com, where she and Gordon spent Christmas.<\/p>\n
However the owners found the cottage in disarray after their six-night stay \u2013 with candle wax and cat litter on the floors and carpets, the bed throw stained with curry, while the bathroom was littered with urine stains, the court heard.<\/p>\n
A breakdown recovery driver who collected them after a previous car \u2013 at this time a Suzuki Ignis \u2013 broke down on the M18 on 28 December, noted it looked they had been living out of the vehicle which was stuffed with clothes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember this couple clearly as it was one of the weirdest pickups I have ever had. They both had bad attitudes even though I was there to help them,\u201d he said in a statement read to the court by prosecutor Mr Little. The breakdown worker did not see or hear a baby at any point.<\/p>\n
The couple are standing trial at the Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey in London (Ian Nicholson\/PA)<\/p>\n
(PA Archive)<\/p>\n
They were next spotted at an Ibis hotel at a services in Warrington, Cheshire, where Marten checked in under the name \u2018Caroline Marten\u2019 \u2013 telling the receptionist she was a freelance journalist and needed to pay in cash because she had lost her bank card.<\/p>\n
A day later they checked in to the four star AC Hotel in Salford, Manchester, where staff said she looked \u201cvery tired\u201d before she was joined by Gordon, who was carrying large numbers of carrier bags. No staff at either hotel saw or heard a baby during their brief stays.<\/p>\n
The parents both deny manslaughter by gross negligence of their daughter between 4 January and 27 February last year.<\/p>\n
The pair also deny charges of perverting the course of justice by concealing the body, concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty and allowing the death of a child.<\/p>\n
The infant\u2019s remains were found in a plastic bag in a locked shed at an overgrown allotment in the Hollingbury area of Brighton on 1 March. The discovery came after\u00a0Marten and Gordon were arrested in nearby Stanmer Villas.<\/p>\n
The trial, scheduled to last until 8 March, continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emailsSign up to our free breaking news emails A van driver who stopped to help a wealthy aristocrat and her partner after their car burst into flames fears their baby would still be alive if he had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[173],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n