A man on trial with his partner over the death of their newborn daughter will now represent himself in the case, a court has heard.
Mark Gordon, 50, and Constance Marten, 37, deny the gross negligence manslaughter of baby Victoria and causing or allowing her death between 4 January and 27 February 2023.
Gordon’s previous barrister John Femi-Ola KC has “withdrawn” and the defendant has chosen to represent himself, Judge Mark Lucraft KC told jurors on Tuesday.
Gordon will submit the questions he wishes to ask during the trial at the Old Bailey.
Victoria died after the pair, of no fixed address, went off-grid in early 2023 and slept in a tent on the South Downs.
The court previously heard how the defendants had fled with Victoria after their car burst into flames on the M61 near Bolton on 5 January 2023.
Prosecutor Joel Smith KC said it was a “watershed” moment as the discovery of a placenta wrapped in a towel in the vehicle and Marten’s passport first alerted police of the baby’s existence.
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Marten gave evidence on Friday and Tom Godfrey – who was the junior barrister in her defence team with Francis FitzGibbon KC as the leading lawyer – asked his client questions.
Judge Lucraft told jurors at the start of Friday’s proceedings: “The eagle-eyed amongst you may notice Mr FitzGibbon is not here and the eagle-eyed will see it is going to be Mr Godfrey who will be asking further questions of Ms Marten going forward.
“Please do not concern yourselves as to the reasons this has happened.”
The Old Bailey was told the couple were avoiding their fifth child being removed from them amid a police hunt for the missing baby, with Marten alleging her other children were “stolen by the state”.
Victoria was inadequately clothed in a babygrow and Marten had become wet as she carried the child underneath her coat, it is alleged.
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The baby died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping in the “flimsy” tent on the South Downs, despite past warnings, the prosecution claims.
After the defendants were arrested on 27 February 2023, Victoria’s body was found with rubbish inside a shopping bag in a disused shed near Brighton two days later.
‘I was hoping they would not find the body’
On Friday, Marten told the court she did not tell police where Victoria was and that she did not want them to find her.
“I thought they are never going to believe me, they are going to try and make something, this situation, nefarious,” she said.
“I just felt like the whole press thing, we were being made out to be dangerous individuals who had to be found.
“I was hoping they would not find the body.
“Because I don’t trust the police, I thought they would make something into something that it is not and that’s basically what has happened.”
Jurors have been told the defendants were convicted at an earlier trial of concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.
The trial continues.
