Runaway aristocrat Constance Marten and her lover deny manslaughter of newborn baby
An aristocrat and her lover who are accused of the manslaughter of their baby daughter have denied all charges they face.
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon pleaded not guilty to five counts relating to the two-month-old newborn during a hearing at the Old Bailey today.
When answering the charges on the indictment, Gordon answered ‘not guilty’, and Marten also pleaded not guilty.
The pair are charged with the manslaughter by gross negligence of the girl, referred to in the charges as Baby A, between January 4 and February 27.
Both also face 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.
After a major search police found remains at an allotment in Hollingbury, Brighton, in March.
At one point, Judge Mark Lucraft KC had to ask the defendants to stop talking to one another while the hearing was in process.
A pre-trial hearing has been listed for December 8 and a trial for January 2.
At the time the couple managed to avoid police by moving around the country by paying for everything in cash and covering their faces when on CCTV.
The couple had travelled from Bolton to Liverpool, then to Harwich in Essex, then to east London and then to Newhaven in Sussex, where they were seen near the ferry port in January.
Senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford said while Marten and Gordon were missing around 50 officers were working on the case at any one time and more than 630 hours of CCTV had been viewed.
He said there had been more than 350 calls to police from the public with information following previous appeals.
A £10,000 reward had been on offer for information that led to them being found safe.
They were eventually detained following a tip-off from a member of the public but the newborn was not with them at the time.
Mr Marten spoke of his ‘immense relief’ after his daughter and her boyfriend were found but added it was ‘tempered by the very alarming news her baby has yet to be found’.
Hundreds of officers used drones, sniffer dogs and thermal imaging cameras in the search of woodlands in East Sussex before the baby’s body was found.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.