Mark Gordon blames baby's death on police manhunt, court hears

Mark Gordon has blamed the police manhunt for the death of his newborn baby Victoria.

"If it had naturally played out, I believe the baby would have been alive today," the court heard as he gave evidence for the first time during his retrial at the Old Bailey in London.

Gordon, 50, and his partner Constance Marten, 38, deny manslaughter by gross negligence and causing or allowing the death of a child.

Their daughter's decomposed body was found in a shopping bag in a Brighton allotment shed in March 2023, two months after they went on the run.

During the previous trial, Marten and Gordon were found guilty of concealing Victoria's birth and perverting the course of justice by not reporting her death.

Gordon no longer has barristers to represent him, so the judge Mark Lucraft KC asked him questions to lead him through his evidence.

Talking of Marten, he described her as his "beautiful, noble wife" and "a ionate strong individual".

But he said the couple face opposition. He said it "made it very difficult for us who were in love, sincerely in love".

Wearing a blue shirt and a peach headwrap, he told the jury that private detectives hired by Marten's family were following them and observing them.

Explaining why he and Marten started living in hotels and holiday lets before and after the birth of their fifth child Victoria, he said "she wanted some time with the baby" and the couple never would have predicted what went on to happen.

"It was a range of calamitous events, one after the other," he said.

It was after their car caught fire in January 2023 that police realised the couple had another baby, leading to detectives launching a public appeal for the couple.

Gordon told the jury "if that manhunt hadn't happened… who knows what could have happened".

"No laws were being broken to justify a national manhunt," he said.

"There are risk assessments that you should do, people - if somebody's on the side of a ledge about to jump off, you don't rush them."

He added: "If it had naturally played out, I believe the baby would have been alive today."

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