✕CloseConstance Marten: Police search woods for missing baby
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Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been further arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter, police have said amid fears over the condition of their missing baby.
The missing aristocrat and her partner, who are in police custody, were initially arrested in Brighton on suspicion of child neglect after a member of the public reported seeing them shortly before 9.30pm.
Speaking to reporters in Brighton, detective superintendent Lewis Basford also said that the risk to the couple’s missing baby was getting “so great” that officers “have to consider the baby has come to harm.”
“We must retain that hope that the baby is found safe and well. However as time progresses, with the weather closing in as it is and the impact the cold would have on a baby, the risk is getting higher and this may not end in the way that we like,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the aristocrat’s father Napier Marten told The Independent of his “immense relief” that his daughter has been found, but said he was extremely worried about her newborn baby.
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Manslaughter arrests as police admit missing baby has likely come to harm
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been further arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter, police have said.
Speaking to reporters in Brighton, detective superintendent Lewis Basford also said that the risk to the couple’s missing baby was getting “so great” that officers “have to consider the baby has come to harm.”
“We must retain that hope that the baby is found safe and well. However as time progresses, with the weather closing in as it is and the impact the cold would have on a baby, the risk is getting higher and this may not end in the way that we like,” he said.
Emily Atkinson28 February 2023 16:501677604520
How Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were caught: A chance encounter outside a corner shop
Fifty-three days after going on the run with a newborn baby, missing aristocrat Constance Marten and her boyfriend Mark Gordon were finally caught – with help from a member of the public outside a corner shop.
The couple were recognised by a passer-by thanks to media appeals, and police swooped just six minutes later as they walked up a nearby Brighton street.
“Just after 9.30pm, yesterday [Monday] evening a member of the public – off the back of media reporting of images of the couple – sighted them outside of the Mulberrys convenience store on Hollingbury Place,” Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford, told a press conference.
Our home affairs editor Lizzie Dearden has the details:
How Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were caught: A corner shop chance encounter
Police swooped in six minutes after a member of the public recognised the couple’s faces from news
Emily Atkinson28 February 2023 17:151677602720
Mapped: What we know about Constance Marten and Mark Gordon’s runaway journey
More than seven weeks after their burning car was found abandoned at the roadside near Bolton, Constance Marten and her partner Mark Gordon have been arrested on England’s south coast.
The couple had spent weeks living off-grid in an apparent attempt to evade authorities concerned for the welfare of their newborn baby, which is yet to be found.
The couple, aged 35 and 48 respectively, were apprehended in Brighton’s Stanmer Villas on Monday night, police said, and a large-scale search is under way for their baby, the sex of which is not yet known.
Andy Gregory reports:
Mapped: What we know about Constance Marten and Mark Gordon’s runaway journey
The couple are thought to have travelled hundreds of miles since police began their search
Emily Atkinson28 February 2023 16:451677601026
Risk to baby ‘as high as it’s been’, say police
Detectives attempting to find Constance Marten’s baby have said the risk to the infant’s welfare is “as high as it’s been in the investigation” as they search the Sussex undergrowth.
Senior investigating officer detective superintendent Lewis Basford said police were making assessments on the baby’s welfare “on the hour, by the hour”.
He said nothing significant has been found, including items such as a tent bought at Argos on January 7, adding: “We would still say we are actively looking for those.”
Mr Basford told reporters: “We have got nobody who has actually physically seen the baby.
“We’re still in a position where we hold hope that the baby is safe and well.
“We agree that the risk is extremely high – probably as high as it’s been in the investigation.
“Clearly, as it’s fast moving, we’re making assessments on the hour, by the hour, as to what our hypotheses are around the ongoing welfare of the baby.”
Emily Atkinson28 February 2023 16:171677598699
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon could have given missing baby to third party, police say
Police have indicated that Constance Marten and Mark Gordon could have entrusted a third party with their missing baby.
Giving an update on the search this afternoon, senior investigating officer Det Supt Lewis Basford suggested the couple may have offered their “cash reserves” to a likeminded or non-law abiding individual in exchange for them protecting their baby.
“Whilst we’re still in the position, we hold hope the baby is safe and we agree that the risk is extremely high,” he told reporters.
Asked if Ms Marten and Mr Gordon may have given the baby to someone else, he responsed: “Our main line of enquiry is that they were in custody of the baby and at no point have we seen in the short period of CCTV we have that they allowed others to have the baby.
But he added: “The rationale for the [£10,000] reward is because we cannot rule out that along that journey they have taken they have found someone likeminded or does not conform to law enforcement aims of trying to protect that baby and may have used the cash reserves we know they had to offer it for safe lodging.”
Emily Atkinson28 February 2023 15:381677598220
Couple have not given ‘any further information’ on whereabouts and condition of baby
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have not given “any further information” during interviews with police about whereabouts or condition of their missing baby, senior investigating officer Det Supt Lewis Basford said.
“We have no additional information or intelligence that has taken us to a position where we are able to find the baby,” he told reporters.
Det Supt Basford said the couple had travelled “significant distances on foot” and police are “actively still engaged in an open land search to find the baby.”
He went on to urge the public to be vigilant in open land and outbuildings in South Downs between Brighton and Newhaven, where the family were last caught on CCTV in January.
The last sighting was on 8 January, when they were seen walking along Cantercrow Hill in Newhaven into some fields, where they were believed to have set up camp.
Emily Atkinson28 February 2023 15:301677597612
Police ‘working against clock’ in search for baby
Police say they are working against the clock to find the missing baby of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon amid threat of freezing temperatures.
Giving an update to reporters on the search this afterrnon, senior investigating officer Det Supt Lewis Basford said: “Just after 9.30pm yesterday evening a member of the public – off the back of media reporting of images of the couple – sighted them outside of the Mulberrys convenience store on Hollingbury Place”
Mr Basford said they saw the couple withdrawing cash and called 999.
Sussex Police arrived within six minutes and arrested the couple as they were walking up nearby Stanmer Villas, he explained. They were both described as “heavily clothed for outdoor activity.”
Det Supt Basford said the baby wasn’t with them and they haven’t yet found their tent or the items they got from the Argos in Whitechapel.
He said: “While there is still hope to find the baby we are continuing as time passes to be against the clock in terms of the risk posed with the climate, the weather conditions and the freezing temperatures we have had overnight.”
Emily Atkinson28 February 2023 15:201677596067
Watch: Drone footage shows police search for missing baby of Constance Marten
✕Drone footage shows police search for missing baby of Constance MartenEmily Atkinson28 February 2023 14:541677592220
A large police presence remains at the scene where missing aristocrat Constance Marten and her partner Mark Gordon were arrested.
Two uniformed officers could be seen guarding the entrance to Golf Drive from Stanmer Villas, while teams used sticks to search bushes in the nearby woodland.
At the other end of Golf Drive, a number of marked police vans from both the Met and Sussex Police were parked by allotments, where more officers appeared to be searching the area.
Emily Atkinson28 February 2023 13:501677589839
Police drawing up strategy for huge search operation for baby
Police are drawing up a strategy for the huge search operation to find the two-month-old baby feared to have been abandoned by missing aristocrat Constance Marten and her sex offender boyfriend Mark Gordon.
The couple were arrested on Monday night in Stanmer Villas, on the outskirts of Brighton, and are being held on suspicion on child neglect.
The Independent understands that the police search has initially worked outwards from the location of their arrest, with officers combing allotments a short walk away.
On Monday morning, police wearing gloves and using search tools were methodically working through plants and undergrowth at the Roedale Valley Allotments.
They sit on the edge of a golf course, which runs into a nature reserve and then into the South Downs National Park.
Officers are understood to be drawing up a strategy for an effective search of the huge area, which Ms Marten and Gordon are believed to have travelled through on foot.
Investigators are working to retrace their steps, but the pair went to lengths to disguise their movements and were last seen 10 miles away in Newhaven.
The couple have been avoiding police since the infant was born in early January, moving around the country, paying for everything in cash and covering their faces when on CCTV.
Ms Marten, 35, and Gordon, 48, have also used taxis since their car was found burning on the M61 in Bolton, Greater Manchester – moving onwards to Liverpool, then to Harwich in Essex, then to east London and finally Sussex.
Senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford earlier told BBC Breakfast he was seeking to find a shelter or “location for where they may have been holed up” in recent days.
“The arrest location was close to open land and the couple were moving towards that land,” he added. “That’s why we are focusing heavily on where we are right now. We know that they travel, we know they travel long distances.”
He has urged people in Brighton, Newhaven and areas between to be “vigilant” in open land and outbuildings.
Lizzie Dearden28 February 2023 13:10
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