Constance Marten – latest news: Court hears baby ‘Victoria’ found with pile of nappies in shed

Name of dead infant revealed as Marten and Mark Gordon remanded in custody charged with manslaughter

Constance Marten: Police say baby found in woods ‘had been dead for some time’

Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have been remanded into custody charged with the manslaughter of baby “Victoria” after a court heard the remains of a baby were found in a plastic bag under some nappies in an allotment shed.

The couple appeared at Crawley Magistrates’ Court on Friday accused of three charges - including concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.

Marten, 35, and Gordon, 48, spoke only to confirm their names, dates of birth and that they were of no fixed abode during a short hearing.

Gordon wore a grey jumper over his head throughout the hearing. At one stage during the hearing, Marten blew a kiss to Gordon.

An infant’s remains were found on Wednesday after a major two-day search operation in Sussex while detectives revealed the infant was dead for some time.

Local residents held a vigil for the baby lighting candles and laying flowers near where it was found earlier this week.

Key points

• Remains of a baby found in plastic bag under nappies, court hears
• Constance Marten and Mark Gordon arrive at court
• Constance Marten and Mark Gordon charged with manslaughter of their baby
• Police believe baby of Constance Marten ‘may have been dead for some time’
• Police seek extension for detention of runaway aristocrat and partner
• Body found in search for missing newborn baby

[2 March 2023 07:00 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Pair spotted at fish and chip shop last month

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

A source told The Sun that Ms Marten and her sex offender partner Gordon visited J & E Fish Bar at night in the weeks before being arrested.

“They’ve been picked up on CCTV in the area as far back as 11 February. They’ve been seen going into the chippy and into the Mulberrys, and would only go out at night,” the source was quoted as saying.

“Gordon has a leg injury and was using the tree branch as a walking stick. They were never seen with the baby, or pushing a pram or anything like that.”

[2 March 2023 06:30 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Everything we know about Constance Marten and Mark Gordon

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

Ms Marten, 35, and her boyfriend Gordon, 48, a convicted sex offender, had crisscrossed England to avoid authorities, police said.

The pair had been missing for two weeks with their newborn baby prompting an emotional plea from her aristocrat father.

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

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

Thomas Kingsley has more.

[2 March 2023 06:00 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Constance Marten’s father: My immense relief she’s been found

The father of runaway aristocrat Constance Marten has spoken of his “immense relief” that his daughter has been found but said he was extremely worried about her newborn baby.

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

But he added that it would have been “far better if they had handed themselves in earlier”.

Martha McHardy and Lizzie Dearden report.

[2 March 2023 05:30 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Moment police swoop in to arrest Constance Marten and Mark Gordon

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

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

Police have further charged the couple on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. They were travelling by taxi across the UK after their car was found burned on a motorway in Greater Manchester.

Watch here.

[2 March 2023 05:00 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Watch: Inside Constance Marten’s aristocratic childhood home

This video gives a glimpse inside the aristocratic childhood home of Constance Marten.

The runaway aristocrat and her convicted sex offender partner were found and arrested in Brighton, without their newborn baby.

The remains of a baby were found in a wooded area close to where the pair was arrested on Monday, the police said.

[2 March 2023 04:30 · Alisha Rahaman Sarkar]

Parkland scoured in urgent search for missing baby

Specialist teams scoured parkland around a mile from where aristocrat Constance Marten and her partner Mark Gordon were arrested.

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

The officers, some wearing jackets indicating they were dog handlers, searched underneath sticks and logs close to where the two sites meet.

Read more here.

[2 March 2023 04:00 · Eleanor Noyce]

Voices: ‘It was like losing her to a cult’: My daughter was estranged, I know the Marten family’s pain

In case you missed it...

Contact with our much-loved daughter was on-and-off. We knew she was living with someone making her very ill indeed, though it was years before we discovered the extent of it, writes Anne Atkins:

Listening to Marten’s appeal, I was immediately taken back to a friend’s Christmas party. Seven or eight years ago, perhaps – pleasant company, lovely food and drink, carols. I was enjoying myself as best I could. Until, that is, our kind hostess asked for news of our daughter and I erupted into such racking, wild and keening sobs I had to leave the room.

I howled and heaved. Even long after calming down enough to return and apologise, on my way home I fell off my bicycle into the middle of the road. I barely cared if I’d hurt myself or if traffic came.

I spent that Christmas and the month or two either side with no idea whether our daughter was alive or dead. On hearing this, sometime later, my husband said: “But of course she was alive. We’d have heard, otherwise.”

[2 March 2023 03:00 · Eleanor Noyce]

Who is Napier Marten? Father who made emotional appeal for daughter missing with baby

The aristocratic Marten family has dominated headlines in recent weeks after 35-year-old Constance Marten, her newborn baby and partner, a convicted rapist, became the subject of a “high risk” missing person investigation.

Napier Marten had urged his daughter Constance to take herself and the child to safety as soon as possible.

Appealing to his daughter in January, Mr Marten said: “I want you to understand that you are much much loved whatever the circumstances. We are deeply concerned for your and your baby’s welfare”.

[2 March 2023 02:00 · Eleanor Noyce]

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.

“They saw the couple withdrawing cash and dialled 999. The time between that call being registered and police arriving at the scene was six minutes.”

He described Ms Marten and Gordon as “heavily clothed for outdoor activity” and said they underwent medical checks in custody.

[2 March 2023 01:00 · Eleanor Noyce]

Remains found in woodland following search for Constance Marten’s baby

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Remains have been found in an area of woodland following a major search for Constance Marten’s two-month-old baby.

Hundreds of officers from the Metropolitan Police and Sussex Police, as well as search and rescue volunteers, scoured 90 square miles of land near Brighton over the course of two days in search of the infant.

On Wednesday evening, Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford told reporters a baby’s remains had been found close to where Marten and her partner Mark Gordon were arrested on suspicion of child neglect on Monday.

The pair had been avoiding police for several weeks and were detained by officers on Stanmer Villas in the city, but the child was not with them – sparking a widespread search in the Sussex undergrowth.

Helicopters, sniffer dogs, drones and thermal imaging cameras were all deployed during the two-day operation.