Constance Marten and Mark Gordon deny all charges after death of their baby girl found in Brighton
An aristocrat and her partner accused of the manslaughter of their baby have denied all the charges they face.
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon pleaded not guilty to five counts relating to daughter Victoria during a hearing at the Old Bailey on Thursday.
Gordon said "not guilty" in a clear, loud voice when answering the charges on the indictment, while Marten also pleaded not guilty.
They are charged with the manslaughter by gross negligence of the girl, referred to in the charges as Baby A, between 4 January and 27 February.
They also face 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.
Marten, 36, and Gordon, 49, of no fixed address, appeared before Judge Mark Lucraft KC, who at one point asked the defendants to stop talking to each other while the hearing was in progress.
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Constance Marten and Mark Gordon sparked a major search operation when they went missing with their newborn child for more than 50 days.
They were eventually found and arrested in Stanmer Villas in Brighton on 27 February.
After a two-day search, the body of two-month-old baby Victoria was discovered in a plastic bag in a locked shed at an overgrown allotment in the Hollingbury area of the city on 1 March.
An initial post-mortem examination was unable to establish the cause of the baby’s death.