Constance Marten and Mark Gordon trial: Newborn baby who died after parents went on the run seen on CCTV for the first time

A court has seen the first glimpses of baby Victoria – who was later found dead in a Lidl bag – as CCTV was played to jurors.

It shows a dark-haired child in a babygrow being put in a pram inside a kebab shop in east London.

Her parents, Constance Marten, 36, and Mark Gordon, 49, who were on the run early last year, deny manslaughter by gross negligence.

The Old Bailey has heard how they spent hundreds of pounds on taxis and lived off-grid before being arrested in Sussex in February 2023.

The body of baby Victoria was found in a bag in a Brighton shed a few days later.

CCTV previously only showed her hidden under her mother’s coat – but on Tuesday, jurors were able to clearly see the child.

Gordon was shown handing the baby to Marten as they arrived in East Ham in a taxi, while another clip showed her unzipping her coat to reveal the baby.

The court also saw Gordon buying a buggy from Argos as Marten waited inside a German Doner Kebab shop.

When he came back, Marten put the baby – who was wrapped in a red scarf – inside the pushchair.

Gordon covered his face with his hands as the video was played and his lawyer asked for a break, saying his client was finding it “quite stressful”.

Marten has so far not attended the trial.

The court heard the couple later travelled a short distance to Whitechapel in east London, where Gordon bought a tent, before heading to Newhaven in East Sussex.

‘Rummaging through bins’

A major police search was already under way after the couple’s burnt-out car was found a few days before on the M61 near Bolton.

Marten was spotted on CCTV at a Texaco petrol station in East Sussex on 12 January, the Old Bailey heard, but the trail went cold until 20 February when they were seen near a golf course.

Prosecutor Joel Smith said Gordon was spotted using a branch as a walking stick and the couple were “rummaging through bins”.

Dog walker Paul Rogers told the court he spotted them near Brighton’s Hollingbury golf course.

“As I got closer to them I noticed they looked a bit dishevelled, a bit dirty, possibly homeless people,” he said.

“The man was carrying plastic bags, a bag in each hand. The woman was pushing a buggy. They didn’t have anything else with them.”

He said he couldn’t see or hear a baby.

The couple were finally arrested by police on the outskirts of Brighton on 27 February.

Marten and Gordon also deny perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty and causing or allowing the death of a child.

The trial continues.