Constance Marten returns to the witness box for the fourth day – latest

Constance Marten is due to return to the dock shortly.

Wednesday is the fourth day the aristocrat has been giving evidence in her trial at the Old Bailey.

Stay with us for the latest updates.

The trial has adjourned for the day, with Constance Marten’s cross-examination due to resume on Wednesday morning at 10.30am.

Becoming frustrated, Marten told the court that press attention to the case is “seriously affecting witnesses”, after she disagreed with a particular witness statement.

She added: “I think people are exaggerating and making things up. It can affect cases.

“I think people think that we are really bad people. Having such media attention can affect people’s witness statements.”

When challenged by the prosecutor, Constance Marten broke down in tears in the witness stand when discussing whether she would have allowed social services near her child.

After replying “absolutely not” and taking aim at certain foster parents for failing the children in their care, she was pressed whether she would have refused authorities to be involved “whatever the consequences”.

She replied: “If I had foreseen what was going to happen then I would rather my child be alive.”

Pressed again, she became tearful and said: “Not whatever the consequences, if I had foreseen what happened with Victoria, of course I’d preferred her to have gone into care and have her life but I wasn’t prepared to have that gamble.”

During a heated exchange with Mr Smith, Constance Marten insisted that she and Mark Gordon had used a baby seat in their car.

She said that the two had been “overly cautious” in moving around the country, and had ensured that the baby seat was not visible to ensure that the authorities were not alerted to Victoria’s presence.

She said: “Anything related to the baby we would hide.”

The 12 jurors have now returned to their seats and Constance Marten has returned to the witness box to continue being cross-examined.

This morning’s proceedings have now come to an end, with the jury due to return at 2pm to continue Constance Marten’s cross-examination.

Marten told the court she believed vehicles the couple were using were being tampered with, and stated her belief that private investigators had been tailing them.

She also told jurors that she had avoided using her card in order to prevent her movements from being traced.

She said: “Having found GPS trackers under all of our cars, the way  every single one of our cars has just stopped in the middle of the motorway… I believe that happened because I used my card that night.”

Marten has faced questioning this morning over her decisions on whether to register her child with a doctor or for school, and her intentions in fleeing abroad with her newborn baby.

Claiming that her other four children had been “stolen by the state”, she said of her daughter Victoria: “She deserves to be with me, I’m a good mother.

“I’m an excellent mother actually and she deserves my love and attention.”

Joel Smith, prosecuting, asked: “You wanted to find someone and pay them to smuggle your child abroad?”

Marten confirmed and said she would liked to use a nanny or a professional.

When asked “Do you think nannies take money to smuggle people abroad?”, she responded: “Where there’s a will there’s a way.

“I would have found someone online like on Gumtree, nannies who don’t necessarily have the same qualifications as nursery teachers but you can go and spend time with them and see how they are with children.

“I would have either brought her abroad with me or given her to someone.”