Constance Marten and her love Mark Gordon left urine on the floor of their holiday cottage as well as wine stains on a quilt and cat litter on chairs, a court heard.

Marten, 36, and Gordon, 49, caused the death of their daughter Victoria as they lived “off grid” in the middle on winter in a tent in order to not have her taken away by social services.

In a case that stunned the British public, Marten and Gordon traversed the country as they attempted to find a way out of Britain after a baby’s placenta was found in a burnt-out car on a Manchester motorway.

It emerged that the pair then spent two months on the run, camping in a blue tent on the cold South Downs near Brighton, before the child – only dressed in a onesie – allegedly froze to death.

But today, the court heard from the owner of a holiday cottage in Northumbria – that housed Marten and Gordon while the couple stayed there across Christmas in 2022.

Maria Richardson said in a statement to the court that she and her husband had rented the holiday cottage to Marten and Gordon.

However, when they returned to the property it had been left with wine stains on the quilt, urine on the bathroom floor and cat litter on its chairs.

Ms Richardson said that Marten had booked the two-bedroom cottage on website Booking.com five days before Christmas and asked to check-in that same night.

In a statement, she said: “On December 20, 2022 at 4.04pm my husband came downstairs to tell me we had our first booking. The booking was for the same day for six nights and the total cost was £367.20.”

According to Ms Richardson, Marten messaged the property owner to say the home “looks nice even without a bath” and was “one I intend to tell my friends about”.

Ms Richardson then had a phone conversation, with the homeowner saying: “I asked where she was coming from and she stated Sheffield. I explained it would be pitch black due to time and gave her the key code.

“She sounded very young and demure during the phone call. I remember thinking she was in a busy place – it sounded very noisy and at the time I thought it was a busy office.”

After the couple began using the property, Ms Richardson was unable to get hold of Marten – despite sending a number of messages with check-out instructions.

More to follow…