Constance Marten: Runaway couple and baby ‘camping wild in Sussex and running out of cash’

Police urge couple to turn themselves in after a month on the run

Missing aristocrat Constance Marten and her sex offender partner could be “running out of cash”, a senior police officer has suggested as he called on the couple to turn themselves in after a month on the run.

Ms Marten, who has links to the Royal Family and Mark Gordon, who was jailed for rape in the US aged 14, have been missing with their newborn baby since 5 January, when the car they were travelling in broke down on the M61 near Bolton.

Despite an emotional appeal by her estranged father Napier, a film and music producer, Ms Napier has not come forward and police fear she and Gordon could have been living in a tent or rough in recent weeks during the freezing cold weather.

Police believe they are camping in Sussex, near to their last known sighting in Newhaven in the early hours of 8 January.

Ms Marten is understood to have access to a multi-million-pound trust fund but Lewis Basford, Metropolitan Police detective superintendent, believes the couple could be running out of cash.

In a direct appeal, he urged the couple: "Your baby has spent the first month of its short life exposed to the elements when it should be safe and warm and, most importantly, seen by medics.

“After a month you must be running low on cash. Please pick up the phone and let us know, at the very least, that you are OK. We are ready to come to you and see that you and the baby get medical attention."

Ms Basford said: "I am appealing in particular to people who may have spent time in the countryside near Newhaven and elsewhere in Sussex to think carefully as to whether they may have seen Constance and Mark over the past four weeks."

Missing Mark Gordon and Constance Marten are believed to have been camping in the Sussex countryside with their newborn (Metropolitan Police/PA) (PA Media)

Couple’s movements up to 5 January (The Independent)

The couple was seen in Essex on January 6 and 7 and spotted on CCTV in East Ham, Whitechapel and Haringey, before travelling to Newhaven by taxi.

Ms Basford added: "They may have travelled on, so I also need to hear from anyone who may have seen them further afield."

Ms Marten is understood to have lived an isolated life since she met Gordon in 2016. It is thought they left their home in Eltham, southeast London, in September last year, when she began showing signs of pregnancy.

Last week police announced they are offering a reward of up to £10,000 for any information which leads to the couple being found.