✕CloseConstance Marten: Father of runaway aristocrat makes emotional plea to missing daughter
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Mark Gordon’s mother Sylvia said she is “very concerned” about the safety of her son and his aristocrat partner Constance Marten.
“I love my son. He is a good boy so I don’t know what this is all about,” she said.
Police said yesterday that Mr Gordon and Ms Marten could be anywhere in the UK and are thought to know how to avoid authorities.
Earlier, Napier Marten, father of Constance, urged his daughter to take herself and the child to safety as soon as possible – after police raised concern that neither had seen a doctor since soon after the child’s birth.
“I want you to understand that you are much much loved whatever the circumstances,” he told The Independent. “ We are deeply concerned for your and your baby’s welfare”.
It recently emerged that Mr Gordon is a convicted rapist who served 20 years in prison. He went missing with Ms Marten and their newborn baby on 5 January, after leaving their broken-down vehicle on the M61 near Bolton.
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Mark Gordon’s mother speaks out: ‘He is a good boy'
Mark Gordon’s mother Sylvia said she is “very concerned” for the safety of her son and his partner.
She told the Daily Mail: “I am very concerned. I love my son. He is a good boy so I don’t know what this is all about.”
Mr Gordon has been missing with partner Constance Marten and their newbord child since 5 January.
It recently emerged that Mr Gordon is a convicted rapist who spent 20 years in jail in the US.
Mark Gordon in a mugshot for his Florida arrest
(Florida Department of Law Enforcement)
Liam James20 January 2023 00:001674169221
Who is Napier Marten? Aristocrat father of missing woman
Napier Marten today publicly appealed for his missing daughter Constance to go to the police.
In a voice message shared with The Independent he said: “Darling Constance, even though we remain estranged at the moment, I stand by, as I have always done and as the family has always done, to do whatever is necessary for your safe return to us.”
Mr Marten, a film and music producer, has roots in Britain’s upper classes. He is the son of Mary Anna Marten, a British Museum trustee whose godmother was the late Queen Mother, and who used to own the Crichel estate in Dorset.
His father, Toby Marten, a lieutenant commander in the Royal Navy, had close links to the royal family, attending the Brownies pack at Buckingham Palace alongside Princess Margaret in her youth.
When Constance was nine, Mr Napier had what was described as an “awakening”. He later told how a voice in his head had told him to discard the £115m family fortune, shave his head and fly to Australia. He later lived in a lorry and trained in head massage, giving the family’s noted Crichel Estate to his son to sell.
Napier Marten and Crichel House, his boyhood estate
(Geograph/Supplied)
Liam James19 January 2023 23:001674163821
Who are Constance Marten and Mark Gordon: Everything we know about couple missing with newborn
Thomas Kingsley goes over what we know so far about the missing couple:
Who are Constance Marten and Mark Gordon: Everything we know about missing couple
The family has been missing for almost two weeks
Liam James19 January 2023 21:301674160251
ICYMI: Constance Marten was ‘promising actress’ and featured in Tatler magazine
Constance Marten was a “talented actress”, according to friends.
The mother and baby belong to an aristocratic household that once possessed a sprawling country estate with links to the royal family, as revealed by The Independent.
As concern for the family grows, worried friends have spoken out about the former Tatler magazine babe of the month who enrolled at East 15 drama school in Essex before dropping out in 2016. Speaking to The Sunday Times, a former friend revealed that she had been a promising actress in her youth.
Matt Mathers19 January 2023 20:301674156621
Friend of Constance Marten ‘warned’ her about falling in love with dangerous men
A friend of Constance Marten has claimed she previously warned the missing mother about the type of men she “falls in love with” but that she “doesn’t listen to anyone”.
Noisette Tahoun, who worked at the same film production company as Ms Marten in Cairo, Egypt, in 2010, said she was “not shocked” when she found out that the 35-year-old had been reported missing.
Speaking to The Independent, Ms Tahoun said: “I was not shocked when I heard she was missing. I know when she falls in love she goes anywhere with the person she loves.
“I’ve given her advice about it … I’ve warned her to take care of the people she gets close to.”
Friend of Constance Marten ‘warned’ her about falling in love with dangerous men
The former colleague claimed Ms Marten would fall in love with men and not listen to warnings
Liam James19 January 2023 19:301674153921
Constance Marten: Map plots sightings of missing couple
The Independent has plotted a map with the locations where Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been seen since police reported them missing.
The last known sighting of the couple was on 7 January in East Ham, London, two days after they abandoned their burnt-out car on the side of the M61 near Bolton, more than 200 miles away.
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have travelled more than 200 miles across England and could be anywhere in the UK
(The Independent)
Liam James19 January 2023 18:451674151221
Constance Marten’s father appeals to missing daughter
“I beseech you to find a way to turn yourself and your wee one in to the police as soon as possible so you and he or she can be protected. Only then can a process of healing and recovery begin, however long it may take, however difficult it may be,” Napier Marten had these word for his estranged daughter Constance and her newborn child.
✕Constance Marten: Father of runaway aristocrat makes emotional plea to missing daughterLiam James19 January 2023 18:001674149421
In depth: The runaway heiress and the rift at the heart of British democracy
Tom Ough investigates the disappearance causing a stir in high places: They abandoned their burning car on the hard shoulder of the M61 and fled – an aristocrat, a sex offender, and their baby, born just one or two days before. From the inferno near Bolton, thought to have destroyed all their belongings, they travelled first to Liverpool, then to Harwich in Essex, to Colchester and on to East Ham station in east London, over the course of two days.
That blurry CCTV footage from 7 January is the last confirmed sighting of 35-year-old Constance Marten, the heiress’s face wrapped in a red scarf, her baby swaddled inside her coat. Alongside her is 48-year-old convicted rapist Mark Gordon, his head covered and bowed away from the camera. Police, concerned for the health of the baby, have been searching for the couple, but they are thought to have with them a large amount of cash, allowing them to stay off the grid.
So just how did Marten, whose father was a page to Elizabeth II, go from gracing the pages of society bible Tatler to being on the run with a man who, after burgling and raping a woman as a teenager, spent 20 years imprisoned in Florida before being deported to Britain?
The runaway heiress, her rapist partner and the aristocratic family rift
Her upbringing had all the trappings of high society, so how did Constance Marten come to be on the run for weeks on end with a sex offender 13 years her senior? Tom Ough reports
Liam James19 January 2023 17:301674145851
ICYMI: ‘I’m very concerned’, says Gordon’s mother
Mark Gordon’s mother Sylvia said she is “very concerned” for the safety of her son and his partner.
She told the Daily Mail: “I am very concerned. I love my son. He is a good boy so I don’t know what this is all about.
“I am worried for all of them. I am thinking, I wonder if someone kidnapped them?”
Matt Mathers19 January 2023 16:301674141351
ICYMI: Key points
Here are the key points from the case of Constance Marten and her partner Mark Gordon
- At 18.33hrs on Thursday, 5 January, officers were called to a car on fire on the hard-shoulder of the M61, near junction four (Farnworth, Bolton). However, the occupants were not at the scene.
- It is believed most of their belongings were destroyed in the car fire.
- Enquiries revealed that Constance and Mark were the occupants of the car and that Constance had very recently given birth, possibly one or two days before, and had not been assessed by medical professionals.
- A missing persons investigation was launched by Greater Manchester Police, who established that the family left the vehicle and the motorway safely – walking to the Anchor Lane bridge which links the Highfield and Little Hulton areas.
- Officers believe they then travelled to Liverpool and then onwards to Harwich via a taxi at about 03.30hrs on Friday, 6 January.
- Mark, Constance and a baby were seen by a member of the public in Harwich at about 9am on Saturday, 7 January. Officers also received a number of confirmed sightings of the family in Colchester on Friday, 6 January and Saturday, 7 January.
- Subsequently, the investigation was handed over to Essex Police on Monday, 9 January.
- Essex Police carried out a number of enquiries and reviewed hours of CCTV and were able to place the couple near East Ham Station between 10:30hrs and 12:30hrs on Saturday, 7 January.
Matt Mathers19 January 2023 15:15
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