Driver tells of regret after touching Constance Marten’s baby saying ‘God bless’

A driver has voiced his regret at leaving Constance Marten’s baby beside a blazing car on a motorway after touching her head and saying: “God bless.”

Marten, 37, and Mark Gordon, 50, are accused over the death of their daughter Victoria while on the run from authorities.

They kept the birth of their fifth child secret after four other children were taken into care, the Old Bailey was told.

On January 5 2023, the couple abandoned their belongings and fled after their Peugeot car burst into flames on the M61 near Bolton, Greater Manchester.

On Wednesday, he became emotional as he expressed his regret at not staying until police arrived, saying there could have been a “different outcome”.

He told jurors he saw the female passenger holding a bundle with a baby’s head with wispy hair showing.

Giving evidence, Mr Hudson said he had asked her “is the baby all right”, and she replied: “She’s fine.”

He touched the baby’s head, which was cold, and said “God bless”, he told jurors.

Mr Hudson described himself as a “tactile” northern man and explained: “I’m a Christian man, have been all my life… It’s what I’ve always done.

“I only touched the baby and said ‘God bless’ and then got in my car.”

The witness appeared close to tears as he replied: “Certain things touch me because it was my thought all the way through the time this happened… if I had stayed there that evening until the emergency services arrived with the police there could have been a different outcome with regard to that baby.

“And I have to think about that a lot. It does play on my mind because obviously this has been going on now for a long time and with coming here, it brings it all back.

“With the greatest respect, sir, I did touch that baby’s head and I did say ‘God bless’ and I got back into my car, not knowing who the people were, not knowing the history.”

Mr Hudson told jurors he had also spoken to the man, Gordon, that night.

He said: “I asked him where he was going and he was making some motions away from me to my right and he just said ‘up there’ over the barrier.”

On the conditions, he said: “It was cold. It was a typical January at six o’clock at night, as you would expect, a winter’s evening.”

The defendants travelled across England in taxis and ended up on the South Downs where the baby died while they lived “off grid” in a tent.

The prosecution has alleged that Victoria died from hypothermia or was smothered while co-sleeping in the “flimsy” tent, despite past warnings.

The child’s body was discovered with rubbish inside a shopping bag for life in a disused shed near Brighton after the defendants were arrested on February 27 2023.

Earlier, jurors heard a statement from hotel receptionist Cathy Lloyd, who interacted with Marten when she checked into the Ibis Hotel at Lymm Services in Warrington early on the morning before the fire on the M61.

Ms Lloyd said Marten had given her name as Caroline Marten and told her she was a freelance journalist.

She said the defendant had seemed “extremely well-spoken” and “genuine”, but “very tired”.

The witness said: “Constance made conversation with me and was very sweet and conversational.

“She told me she was very tired after driving ‘a hell of a long way’. She told me she had lost her credit card and if she could pay cash. She told me she lived in Hackney and just wanted to go home.”

Ms Lloyd said in her statement that she handed over her email address and phone number, but never heard back from Marten.

She told how Gordon entered reception shortly after Marten had gone to her room.

He appeared to be “very moody” and did not reply to her inquiry about whether he had checked in, which she found “unnerving”, jurors heard.

Ms Lloyd said: “I really thought she was a journalist. At no time did I see Constance and Mark together. At no point did I see a baby with either of them.

“I definitely did not see a baby or any baby items. None of their body language indicated they had a baby with them.”

The prosecution has alleged that the couple failed to provide for their baby properly and carried her in a shopping bag or underneath Marten’s coat during her short life.

Jurors have heard that Marten was a wealthy woman with access to funds to buy whatever was needed.

The day before she and Gordon checked into the Ibis, she had received £3,400 into her bank account from a trust fund, the court was told.

Marten and Gordon, of no fixed address, have denied the gross negligence manslaughter of their daughter and causing or allowing her death between January 4 and February 27 2023.

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 Old Bailey retrial continues.