Constance Marten latest news: Baby’s body found in search for aristocrat’s missing newborn

An autopsy will be performed in due course, detectives say.

The 35-year-old and her partner Mark Gordon, 48, were arrested in Brighton on Monday night after a search lasting more than seven weeks was sparked by the discovery of their burnt-out car on the M61 near Bolton.

The couple were arrested by Sussex Police after being spotted by a member of the public, leading to an intensive search for their baby who was not with the couple.

My colleague Andy Gregory has more:

Here is Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford’s full statement last night:

“It is my very sad duty to report that police officers searching a wooded area near where Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were arrested this afternoon discovered the remains of a baby.

“An autopsy will be carried out in due course. A crime scene exists and work at the site is expected to continue for some time. This is a result that I and the many officers involved in the search were not hoping for.

“I recognize the impact this news will have on the many people who have followed this story closely and I can assure them that we will do everything we can to determine what happened.

“Constance Martin and Mark Gordon remain in custody after an application was made to Brighton Magistrates’ Court to extend their detention by a further 36 hours.

“It is now imperative that the media and members of the public refrain from online speculation and commentary that could be detrimental to potential legal proceedings. No further information about the discovery is being shared at this time.”

Police spent more than seven weeks tracking down Constance Marten and Mark Gordon before they were arrested Monday night.

Here is a map of her known movements, covering mainly the first three days after her car was spotted on the hard shoulder of the M61.

Constance Marten and Mark Gordin were reportedly spotted at a fish and chip shop on February 11.

A source tells The sun that Ms Marten and her sex offender partner Gordon frequented the J&E Fish Bar at night in the weeks leading up to her arrest.

“They were picked up by surveillance cameras in the area as early as February 11th. They were spotted going to Chippy and Mulberrys and only went out at night,” the source was quoted as saying.

“Gordon has a leg injury and used the branch as a walking stick. They were never seen with the baby or pushing a stroller or anything.”

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were arrested on Monday in Brighton, southern England, following a tip-off from the public.

Ms Marten, 35, and her boyfriend Gordon, 48, a convicted sex offender, had traveled the length and breadth of England to evade authorities, police said.

The couple had been missing with their newborn baby for two weeks, sparking an emotional plea from their aristocratic father.

Napier Marten, a film and music producer, urged his daughter Constance to get herself and the child to safety as soon as possible.

Gordon, Ms Marten’s partner, was jailed in Florida, USA, in the late 1980s after raping and assaulting a woman when she was 14 years old. After serving a 20-year sentence, he was deported back to the UK in 2010.

Thomas Kingsley has more.

The father of runaway aristocrat Constance Marten has spoken of his “immense relief” that his daughter has been found but said he is extremely concerned for their newborn baby.

Napier told Marten, who made two heartfelt pleas while his daughter was on the run with her convicted rapist partner The Independent that “whatever the weather, I love her very much and will support her as much as I can”.

But he added that “it would have been much better if they had given up sooner”.

Martha McHardy and Lizzie Dearden report.

Surveillance footage shows the moment police rushed in to arrest Constance Marten and her partner Mark Gordon.

The couple were found by officers in Brighton after a tip-off from the public but were without their newborn baby.

The police have further charged the couple on suspicion of grossly negligent homicide. They took a taxi across Britain after their car was found burned on a motorway in Greater Manchester.

This video gives a glimpse into Constance Marten’s aristocratic childhood home.

The runaway aristocrat and her convicted sex offender have been found in Brighton without their newborn baby and arrested.

The remains of a baby were found in a wooded area near where the couple were arrested on Monday, police said.

Special teams combed the parkland about a mile from where aristocrat Constance Marten and her partner Mark Gordon were arrested.

Dozens of Metropolitan Police officers and a team from London Search and Rescue were seen at the Wild Park Local Nature Reserve, adjacent to Hollingbury Golf Course in Brighton, East Sussex.

The officers, some wearing jackets suggesting they were dog handlers, searched under sticks and logs near where the two sites meet.

Contact with our beloved daughter was back and forth. We knew she was living with someone who was indeed making her very ill, although it was years before we discovered the extent, writes Anne Atkins:

When I heard Marten’s call, I was immediately taken back to a friend’s Christmas party. Seven or eight years ago maybe – pleasant company, delicious food and drink, Christmas carols. I enjoyed it as much as I could. That is, until our kind hostess asked for news of our daughter and I broke into such agonizing, wild, plaintive sobs that I had to leave the room.

I howled and twitched. Although I calmed down long enough to return and apologize, I fell off my bike on the way home in the middle of the road. I didn’t care if I hurt myself or if there was traffic.

I spent that Christmas and a month or two on either side with no idea if our daughter was alive or dead. When my husband heard this some time later, he said, “But of course she was alive. Otherwise we would have heard it.”