The horrifying moment police found Constance Marten’s baby in a rubbish-filled shopping bag

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

Sign up to our free breaking news emails

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter a valid email address

SIGN UP

I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice

Jurors have been shown the horrifying moment police discovered the remains of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon’s baby covered in leaves in a rubbish-filled shopping bag.

The infant, named Victoria, was found by officers in a disused allotment shed strewn with rubbish, out of date food and a blue tent, a court heard.

Police footage from body cameras played to the Old Bailey on Wednesday showed officers rifling through a tatty red Lidl carrier bag, pulling out nappies and an old Budweiser beer can before reaching into the bottom of the bag where the child’s body was discovered.

Marten, 36, who was in court wearing a pink blouse and black trousers, appeared to shake her head in the dock alongside Gordon, 49, after the distressing footage was played.

The couple both deny gross negligence manslaughter of their newborn daughter, whose remains were eventually found in the disused shed covered in rubbish “as if she was refuse”, the court heard.

The prosecution allege the couple’s “reckless and utterly selfish” behaviour led to the “entirely avoidable” death of the infant, after the pair spent weeks on the run living in a tent in freezing conditions to avoid the child being taken into care.

Giving evidence, PC Allen Ralph told the Old Bailey that the first thing he and a colleague noticed was the smell when he entered the shed in an abandoned area of a Brighton allotment on 1 March last year.

“I remember saying to him [his colleague] directly, either something is dead in there or something has died,” he told the court.

The officers discovered the bag for life tucked in a corner “out of the way” under a makeshift table – on which there was out of date milk and bread.

He added: “I lifted it and it was heavy and there was no reason for it to be heavy from what I could see inside.”

Asked what he could see, he continued: “To be fair I remember it quite clearly it was just a lot of rubbish. The only thing that made me bring it out more is I found two newborn baby nappies. That’s the first thing I could see.

“And then underneath that there was a pink rolled up bloody blanket. And then underneath that there was the rubbish, there was cans there was bottles. There were leaves – a lot of leaves – in the bag.”

PC Ralph said he saw what looked like the head of a doll in the bag, the court heard.

Forensics later arrived and confirmed the bag contained the remains of a deceased female infant.

Other items found in the bag included a quantity of soil and leaves, two golf club score cards, a bottle of petrol, a baby grow, a black blanket, some pages from the Sun newspaper dated 12 January, an old coke can and an egg mayonnaise sandwich packet with a 15 January use by date, the court heard.

The footage comes after the court heard how Gordon demanded to be treated with respect during his police interview as detectives were still searching for the baby, insisting: “I don’t think I should be talked to like a nobody.”

Jurors were told how Gordon refused to respond to questions about whether his child was dead or alive but demanded pain killers from police after he was arrested with Marten after almost eight weeks on the run.

In transcripts of police interviews read to the jury on Wednesday, Gordon told a detective he was getting “sub-par” treatment when he was interviewed at 12.27am on 1 March last year – as officers searched for the baby.

The Old Bailey heard he had seen a nurse about his swollen feet and numb hands before the interview began at Worthing Police station, but demanded to see a doctor.

“Like I’m getting sub-par treatment and I don’t think I should be talked to like a nobody…I should be treated with respect,” the court heard.

“I don’t appreciate being looked down on and talked to like I’m a nobody. Yes I’m in custody but it doesn’t mean I’m a nobody.”

He went on: “Firstly I am a detainee, I am not charged with anything, therefore why am I being treated like I’m in HMS down there…just sub-par treatment. The amount of prisoners dying out there because of how these prisons are run.”

He later added: “I just feel like I am scum. I feel like I’m a scumbag actually. I feel like a piece s**t – like that’s how I’ve been treated.”

Jurors were told that Marten, who was taken to a custody suite in Brighton, responded ‘no comment’ when she was interviewed on 28 February, before officers knew if the child was dead or alive, and again on 1 March after the infant’s remains had been found.

Last week the court heard how Marten claimed her name was Arabella and told police “you can’t arrest someone for hiding a pregnancy” after she was arrested in Brighton at 9.35pm on 27 February.

The aristocrat was also heard begging “please stop - he’s not been well” as Gordon was handcuffed and pinned to the ground after they were spotted by a member of the public.

The couple were heard telling each other they loved one another shortly after they were captured by police, the court heard.

The pair both deny manslaughter by gross negligence of their daughter between 4 January and 27 February last year.

They also deny 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.

The infant’s remains were found in a plastic bag in a locked shed at an overgrown allotment in the Hollingbury area of Brighton on 1 March. The discovery came after Marten and Gordon were arrested in nearby Stanmer Villas.

The trial, scheduled to last until 8 March, continues.