6 hours ago
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Daniel Sandford
BBC home affairs correspondent
Constance Marten has denied carrying her baby in a supermarket bag while on the run and said she considered handing the newborn to authorities, a court has heard.
Asked if her baby, Victoria, had been carried in a red bag for life at any point, Marten said "absolutely not" and added: "No-one is going to put their live baby who they are caring for and loving in a shopping bag."
Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, are accused of manslaughter by gross negligence and causing or allowing the death of a child - charges they deny.
Marten returned to court on Monday to continue giving evidence in the retrial, but shortly after beginning around 11:00 BST said she needed a coffee to wake up.
She continued to give evidence after a short break, but the jury were sent home for the day after lunch, with the judge telling them a "matter of law" had arisen.
She was due to start giving evidence on Tuesday last week but said she had a headache and toothache. She did not come to court on Wednesday.
She started giving evidence on Thursday, still complaining of toothache and did not give evidence on Friday.
Marten and Gordon are facing a retrial at the Old Bailey. At the first trial both were found guilty of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.
The couple's baby girl was found dead in a shopping bag covered in rubbish, in a shed on a Brighton allotment in 2023.
On Monday, Marten told the jury why she and Gordon decided to go out onto the South Downs in Sussex with baby Victoria in a tent from Argos.
They were on the run after their car caught fire two days earlier and the police were hunting for them because they had found a placenta on the back seat.
The couple's previous four children had previously been taken into care.
By 7 January 2023 they had arrived in East Ham in east London. Marten told the jury they were hoping to stand out less than they had in Harwich where people had started to recognise them.
"We thought with more people we might blend in more, but there were just more people looking at us. So we wanted to get away from prying eyes for a few days," she said.
They took a taxi to Whitechapel and bought a tent from Argos, then, with the intention of trying to go abroad despite not having their passports, they attempted to get to Plymouth by taxi.
But when the driver was warned by a friend not to take them, they got a taxi to Haringey, north London, and then another taxi to Newhaven on the south coast.
They then set off onto the South Downs.
Marten said the couple only wanted to stay in the tent for a day or two while they figured out what to do next.
She told the court they had lots of ideas, and considered handing the baby in to the local authorities.
She also said she did not understand the need for the manhunt.
The conditions inside the tent were warm but not comfortable, Marten said, adding the baby would usually sleep on either her or Gordon's chest. If they were awake, they would put the baby on a pillow between them, she added.
Marten told the court the baby died while she was asleep.
"I fell asleep and my head flopped forward," she said, adding "when I woke up she was dead".
She said the couple were in state of panic, shock and disbelief on realising the child had died.
On 1 March 2023 baby Victoria's decomposed body was found under some rubbish in a bag for life in a shed on the allotment.
The retrial continues at the Old Bailey.
