Aristocrat Constance Marten has stressed that her baby was “placed” in a rubbish bag next to a beer can and sandwich wrapper, rather than the prosecutor’s claim that her newborn was “dumped”.
It comes after she told jurors on Monday that she and her partner had planned to pay someone to smuggle their baby daughter abroad, and cited the website Gumtree as a place to source a potential candidate.
She and her partner Mark Gordon, 49, deny charges of gross negligence manslaughter of their daughter Victoria between 4 January and 27 February last year.
The court heard that the 36-year-old concealed her pregnancy and went on the run with Gordon after their four other children were taken into care.
Victoria died while the couple were evading authorities and living “off-grid” in a tent, and her remains were found in a Lidl shopping bag in a disused shed last March.
The couple also deny charges of perverting the course of justice by concealing the body, along with concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty, and allowing the death of a child.
The trial continues.
