A woman who gave birth on the run looked “scared”, “pasty” and “weak”, a jury was told.

The Old Bailey heard from Dale Gosling who saw Mark Gordon, 49, and Constance Marten, 36, sitting on a planter in George Elmer’s Way near Harwich port with their baby.

Mr Gosling said he recognised them from a news feature about the missing couple a few hours earlier.

Mr Gosling said Gordon looked "clean and tidy" and "quite well dressed". He said Marten “looked like a woman who had just given birth”.

He confronted them and asked if they were the missing couple. The pair denied it, he told jurors on Monday.

He asked if the baby was OK and offered them a lift to hospital.

He said the man said he was "doing the best for his child" and that he wanted to "keep his family together". They said they were trying to get to London to see family.

Mr Gosling said the baby was "consistently" crying throughout the encounter, which lasted about ten minutes.

"It was a cry I couldn't walk away from,” he said.

Read more: Updates as Constance Marten and Mark Gordon trial continues

Asked if the baby sounded distressed Mr Gosling said "most definitely".

He said the baby looked "brand new" and that it was wearing a "white all in one suit"and was wrapped inside Marten’s coat in a towel or blanket.

He said the baby's hands were sticking out, the baby had no hat but the feet were enclosed in the clothing.

During cross examination, Gordon's defence said Mr Gosling said in his original statement he could not see the baby's hands and that it was not mentioned in the statement that he offered to take them to hospital.

They suggested he may have "embellished" his evidence in court because "he has watched things on the news".

Read more: Constance Marten's baby was 'seen just wearing nappy', court told

The defence said if he had watched news reports since the sighting it would be difficult to differentiate between these and what had happened.

Mr Gosling disagreed with the suggestion.

Earlier, the court heard from workers at the Premier Inn in Harwich where Gordon and Marten checked in under the false name of Thomas at around 3am on January 6.

Staff noticed she seem “quite distressed” and declined the use of a cot for the child strapped to her front under a blanket.

One hotel worker said the room the couple vacated smelled like “rotting flesh”.

Receptionist Rae Robson told jurors Marten appeared “stressed” when told she would have to vacate her room because she did not have any identity documents.

Afterwards, Ms Robson went into the room where there was a “really bad smell”.

"I couldn't stay in the room for long,” she said.

After this the couple checked into the Fryatt Hotel in the evening where they stayed until just before 7am on January 7.

The defendants, of no fixed address, deny manslaughter by gross negligence of their baby girl between January 4 and February 27 last year.

They are also charged with perverting the course of justice, concealing the birth of a child, child cruelty, and causing or allowing the death of a child.

The trial will continue today.