Summary

  • Police have been holding a press conference as 200 officers urgently search for a missing baby

  • It follows the arrest of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon in Brighton after they had apparently evaded police for weeks

  • They were initially arrested for child neglect and have now been further arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter, police say

  • Officers are continuing to search for the baby

  • But they say they "have to consider the possibility that the baby has now come to harm"

  • The police search began in January after the couple's car was found burning on the side of a motorway in Bolton

  • Marten's family made several appeals for her to come forward as concerns grew for the baby, who is thought to have been days old when the couple disappeared

  • Gordon, a convicted sex offender, was deported to Britain from the United States in 2010

Live Reporting

Edited by Marita Moloney

  1. Map of sightings.

  2. The timeline of the case

    • September 2022: Constance Marten and Mark Gordon leave their home in Eltham, south-east London, and start leading a nomadic lifestyle.
    • 5 January: The couple’s car breaks down and catches fire on the side of the road near Bolton. They leave it there and catch a taxi that takes them to Liverpool. They then take another taxi to the Essex port of Harwich.
    • 7 January: Marten and Gordon take a taxi to East Ham. CCTV spots them near the Tube station. They then take a taxi from East Ham to Whitechapel, also in east London. They are seen carrying carrier bags and a pushchair. They go into Whitechapel Argos and buy camping equipment. They then walk to nearby Brick Lane.
    The trio spotted on CCTVPA Media
    • 8 January: The couple get a taxi in Haringey, north-east London, and travel to Newhaven in East Sussex. CCTV shows them walking along Cantercrow Hill in Newhaven into some fields, where they were believed to have set up camp.
    • 19 January: Marten’s father Napier Marten makes an appeal in which he reveals that the family had known about Gordon's past record "for some time" and asks his daughter to “turn yourself and your wee one into the police as soon as possible so you and he or she can be protected."
    • 27 February: A member of the public reports seeing Marten and Gordon in the Fiveways area of north Brighton. The pair are arrested by Sussex Police on suspicion of child neglect, but the infant isn’t found.

  3. How the search for Constance Marten and Mark Gordon unfolded

    Constance Marten and Mark GordonGMP

    Constance Marten, 35, comes from an affluent family and has inherited wealth, but she is estranged from her relatives.

    Mark Gordon is a 47-year-old registered sex offender who spent 20 years in prison in the US after having been convicted in Florida of a rape he committed aged 14.

    The couple met in 2016. Marten and Gordon are thought to have been leading a nomadic lifestyle after the police say the couple left their home in Eltham, south-east London, in September 2022 when Marten began showing signs of pregnancy.

    The couple's car was found burning on the side of the motorway near Bolton in early January.

    Police soon discovered that Marten had given birth a day or two earlier without any medical assistance.

    They started searching for the couple right away – but despite numerous CCTV sightings placing them in various locations around the country, Marten and Gordon weren’t found until 27 February, when they were arrested on the outskirts of Brighton.

    The search for the baby continues.

  4. Police to share update on search for missing baby

    Marita Moloney
    Live reporter

    Hello and thanks for joining our live coverage as an urgent search for a newborn baby continues after a couple were arrested in Brighton.

    Constance Marten and her partner Mark Gordon were found last night after a 53-day search - but their child is still missing.

    The couple disappeared in early January, just days after Marten gave birth.

    Almost 24 hours after they were arrested, police still haven’t been able to locate the infant, and concerns are growing about the child being exposed to the elements.

    The Met Police and Sussex Police are expected to hold a press conference shortly, so stay with us as we bring you the latest.