Constance Marten's father is 'relieved' his runaway daughter is found

Constance Marten’s aristocrat father is ‘relieved’ his runaway daughter was found and ‘loves her dearly’ after she was arrested with rapist lover – but is ‘alarmed’ their baby is missing as police hunt woods and find pink fluffy earmuffs in allotments

• Constance Marten and her partner Mark Gordon have been located and arrested
• They have been held on suspicion of child neglect and are in custody in Brighton 
• However, her baby remains missing and an ‘urgent search’ is under way 
• Marten and Gordon have been travelling around the UK by taxi since January 5 

The father of runaway aristocrat Constance Marten today spoke of his ‘immense relief’ that she has been found as police desperately hunt for her missing baby.

Napier Marten said it is ‘very alarming’ after his daughter, 35, was arrested with Mark Gordon, 48, in Brighton last night but refused to say where the newborn is.

He said: ‘It would have been far better if they handed themselves in earlier and whatever the weather, I love her dearly. It is an immense relief to know my beloved daughter Constance has been found, tempered by the very alarming news her baby has yet to be found’.

Police hunting for a missing baby are today carrying out a finger tip search of allotments close to where its aristocrat mother and her lover were arrested following 54 days on the run.

Miss Marten, who comes from a wealthy family with links to the royals, and Gordon, a convicted rapist, were held in a residential street in Brighton. They were spotted by a member of the public in Stanmer Villas at 9.30pm last night – after almost two months sleeping rough – close to a convenience store.

But their newborn child was not with them and the couple are refusing to give its location, sparking a frantic search of the surrounding area as the temperature fell to -1C overnight. They have both been arrested on suspicion of child neglect and are in custody.

Officers were searching sheds, compost bins and the undergrowth for clues as they hunt for the baby

The Metropolitan Police has sent scores of officers down to Brighton to help with the search

A pair of pink child’s earmuffs is collected by a police officer and put in an evidence bag in Roedale Valley Allotments, Brighton, where an urgent search operation is underway to find the missing baby of Constance Marten

Fears for the infant were growing as police launched an urgent search operation after arresting aristocrat Constance Marten  (left) and Mark Gordon (right) in a residential street following a tip-off from a member of the public at about 9.30pm on Monday 

An officer at the allotment told MailOnline this morning the site was a ‘potential crime scene’. They were seen taking pictures of an oil drum (pictured)

Gordon served 20 years in prison in the US for rape and battery committed when he was 14. He has been accused of cutting Marten off from her family and friends before they ran away with £15,000 from her trust fund. 

Mr Marten told The Independent: ‘For whatever reasons she and her partner went on the run, the consequences of their actions have increased many fold. It would have been far better if they had handed themselves in earlier.’

READ MORE: Police conduct fingertip search of allotment in hunt for missing baby 

He continued: ‘The police to whom I am profoundly grateful, committed great resources to try to find Constance, all of which, it was always hoped, could have been avoided.

‘I would like to thank Det. Sup. Bashford and his team for their dogged investigation to bring her disappearance to a close. I would also like to thank the person or persons who called the Police when they saw the couple.

‘When the time comes, I am longing to see Constance to reassure her that, whatever the weather, I love her dearly and will support her as best I can through the difficult weeks and months here on in.’

An officer at the Roedale Valley Allotments at the end of the road told MailOnline this morning the site was a ‘potential crime scene’. One local said officers were seen photographing an oil drum used to burn rubbish. Dozens of police then began carrying out a finger print search’ of the plots, where items including some pink children’s ear muffs were put in an evidence bag.

Officers have been going from house to house in the area, searching gardens, bushes and alleyways for the infant. Specialist search teams have also been working through the night in an area of woods at the end of the street where the couple were found. Police are also scouring Hollingbury Golf Club, seen as the gateway to the Sussex Downs. 

A blue forensic tent has been erected in the street, where a car and caravan can also be seen in an area backing on to woods and allotments, and the Metropolitan Police is helping with the search of open land and outbuildings. The public has been urged to search their sheds and garages for the newborn.

Search teams search local allotments  close to where Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been sleeping rough after travelling around the UK by taxi

Officers are looking for the baby in woodland that leads to the Sussex Downs

DSI Lewis Bashford from the Met Police revealed that the couple have not told them where the baby is or even its gender. 

READ MORE: From a burnt out car on a motorway in Bolton, to residential street in Brighton: The 54 day hunt for runaway couple Constance Marten and Mark Gordon

He said: ‘They have been arrested on suspicion of child neglect and there is a search for the baby. We are looking at open land, outbuildings where they may have placed the baby while they were in the local area before we arrested them.’

He added: ‘We’ve got to keep the hope that maybe they have allowed somebody else to care for the baby who thinks they are doing some good on behalf of the couple, but as we know, as the temperature drops and the longer the baby goes without parents the risks are high.

 ‘We still think they were living in the outdoor environment and the that is leading us, and the arrest location, to the outdoor search.’

Police say the couple were believed to have been walking off the Sussex Downs at around 9.30pm last night when they were seen by a member of the public who called 999.

Police rushed to the scene and drones, the force helicopter and dozens of the officers launched a hunt that has continued all night.

James Dunne, 28, who lives close by, said: ‘I heard they’d been seen in the street and a call went out to the police. Within minutes the place was flooded with uniformed officers with lights and torches and vans.

‘It was frantic. I’ve been told they’ve been searching for the baby all night and using heat-seeking cameras and other specialist gear. A baby that age wouldn’t last very long without heat and shelter.’

A blue forensic tent has been erected in the street, and a car and caravan can also be seen where the couple were arrested after being spotted last night

Police search teams in Roedale Valley Allotments, Brighton, where an urgent search operation is underway to find the missing baby of Constance Marten, who has not had any medical attention since birth in early January

Police are searching an allotment close to where an aristocrat’s daughter and her convicted rapist lover were arrested following 54 days on the run.

Ms Marten and her partner Mark Gordon are in police custody after being arrested in Brighton. The pair had been travelling around the UK by taxi since their car was found burning on the M61 in Bolton, Greater Manchester, on January 5

Police are searching sheds and outbuildings for signs of the child. Officers are asking the public to do the same 

Police searching for the baby of Constance Marten, 35, and Mark Gordon, 48, in Brighton

Teams of officers from Sussex Police and London’s Met Police are scouring the land for the child

Officers this morning searching an area near Stanmer Villas in Brighton, East Sussex, for the baby who went missing with Constance Marten and Mark Gordon almost two months ago

The 999 call came as temperatures in Brighton dipped to -1C for the second night in a row and local residents believe the couple may have been driven out of open land by the severe cold.

Dean Edwards, said: ‘It was freezing last night, really cold, and the couple must have been forced to get off the Downs and try and find some proper shelter from the cold.

‘Police immediately headed up towards the woods and the allotments and that is where the search has been concentrated. Everyone just hopes the baby can be found alive.’

Laetitia Long, 30, said: ‘Police were searching all night and we could hear the sound of he police helicopter above us. It is quite terrifying really to think that a baby could be out there in the cold all alone. It’s made me very tearful.

‘It was madness to try and camp in this weather. I can’t believe they have been out in it for so long.’

Police also appear to be hunting in the Stanmer Park Nature Reserve, further out of the city, close to Brighton and Hove Albion’s Amex Stadium.

Marten, who had a family trust fund, had withdrawn large amounts of cash, between £5,000 and £15,000, as an escape fund before going on the run. The couple are believed to have bought burner phones and multiple sim cards to avoid being traced. They slept in tents and were spotted in the north-west, London, Essex and across the south-east of London, including at major ports.

The baby is believed to have been born in the back seat of car on around January 5.  

Teams of police have been hunting for the couple’s baby through the night

Officers search under a car in Stanmer Villas, Brighton

An officer searches scrubland after the arrests of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon, who have been sleeping rough and travelling around the UK by taxi for six weeks

A blue forensic tent has been erected in the street, and a car and caravan can be seen where the couple were arrested after being spotted last night

After almost two months of hunting, Marten and Gordon were spotted and arrested 270 miles away without their child. 

The couple have been travelling around the UK by taxi since their car was found burning on the M61 in Bolton, Greater Manchester, on January 5.

Authorities previously believed the couple had been sleeping rough in a blue tent, and had avoided being traced by the police by moving around frequently and keeping their faces covered in CCTV images.

The couple travelled from Bolton to Liverpool, then to Harwich in Essex, then to east London and then to Newhaven in East Sussex, where they were seen near the ferry port on January 8.

Miss Marten, who is from a wealthy aristocratic family, was a promising drama student when she met Mr Gordon in 2016.

Since then the couple have led an isolated life, and in September, when Miss Marten was well into her pregnancy, began moving around rental flats.

It is unknown if the baby was born at full-term or has any health issues.

Anyone who may be able to assist in the search for the couple’s baby is urged to contact 999.

January 5: The baby was born in the back of this car – which was then torched and left on the M61

January 7: CCTV footage shows Marten and Gordon on Whitechapel Road in London

January 7: Marten was spotted outside Harwich Port at 9am and later in Colchester

January 7: Constance Marten and Mark Gordon outside East Ham station at around 11.45am

January 8: Mark Gordon and Constance Marten in Allison Road, Haringey, north London

January 8: Marten and Gordon were last spotted on Avis Road, Newhaven 

A member of the public reported a sighting in Stanmer Villas, Brighton

Metropolitan Police said an urgent search operation is underway to find Marten’s baby, who has not had any medical attention since birth in early January

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