Constance Marten’s aristocrat father is ‘relieved’ his runaway daughter was found

The father of runaway aristocrat Constance Marten today spoke of his ‘immense relief’ that she has been found as police desperately hunt for her missing baby. 

Napier Marten said it is ‘very alarming’ that despite his daughter, 35, being arrested in Brighton with Mark Gordon, 48 – they have refused to say where the newborn is.

He said: ‘It would have been far better if they handed themselves in earlier and whatever the weather, I love her dearly. It is an immense relief to know my beloved daughter Constance has been found, tempered by the very alarming news her baby has yet to be found’.

Police hunting for the child – born in the back of a car on around January 5 – are today carrying out a finger tip search of allotments close to where its aristocrat mother and her lover were arrested following 54 days on the run. Officers are testing a placenta found on the M61 to find out if the missing newborn is a boy or a girl.

Miss Marten, who comes from a wealthy family with links to the royals, and Gordon, a convicted rapist, were held in a residential street in Brighton. They were spotted by a member of the public in Stanmer Villas at 9.30pm last night – after almost two months sleeping rough – close to a convenience store.

But their newborn child was not with them and the couple are refusing to give its location, sparking a frantic search of the surrounding area as the temperature fell to -1C overnight. They have both been arrested on suspicion of child neglect and are in custody.

An officer at the Roedale Valley Allotments at the end of Stanmer Villas told MailOnline this morning the site is a ‘potential crime scene’. One local said officers were seen photographing an oil drum used to burn rubbish. Dozens of police then began carrying out a finger print search’ of the plots, where items including some pink children’s ear muffs were put in an evidence bag. 

Gordon served 20 years in prison in the US for rape and battery committed when he was 14. He has been accused of cutting Marten off from her family and friends before they ran away with £15,000 from her trust fund. 

Mr Marten told The Independent: ‘For whatever reasons she and her partner went on the run, the consequences of their actions have increased many fold. It would have been far better if they had handed themselves in earlier.’

He continued: ‘The police to whom I am profoundly grateful, committed great resources to try to find Constance, all of which, it was always hoped, could have been avoided.

‘I would like to thank Det. Sup. Bashford and his team for their dogged investigation to bring her disappearance to a close. I would also like to thank the person or persons who called the Police when they saw the couple.

‘When the time comes, I am longing to see Constance to reassure her that, whatever the weather, I love her dearly and will support her as best I can through the difficult weeks and months here on in.’

Officers have been going from house to house in the area, searching gardens, bushes and alleyways for the infant. Specialist search teams have also been working through the night in an area of woods at the end of the street where the couple were found. Police are also scouring Hollingbury Golf Club, seen as the gateway to the Sussex Downs. 

A blue forensic tent has been erected in the street, where a car and caravan can also be seen in an area backing on to woods and allotments, and the Metropolitan Police is helping with the search of open land and outbuildings. The public has been urged to search their sheds and garages for the newborn.

DSI Lewis Bashford from the Met Police revealed that the couple have not told them where the baby is or even its gender. 

He said: ‘They have been arrested on suspicion of child neglect and there is a search for the baby. We are looking at open land, outbuildings where they may have placed the baby while they were in the local area before we arrested them.’

He added: ‘We’ve got to keep the hope that maybe they have allowed somebody else to care for the baby who thinks they are doing some good on behalf of the couple, but as we know, as the temperature drops and the longer the baby goes without parents the risks are high.

 ‘We still think they were living in the outdoor environment and the that is leading us, and the arrest location, to the outdoor search.’

Police say the couple were believed to have been walking off the Sussex Downs at around 9.30pm last night when they were seen by a member of the public who called 999.

Police rushed to the scene and drones, the force helicopter and dozens of the officers launched a hunt that has continued all night.

James Dunne, 28, who lives close by, said: ‘I heard they’d been seen in the street and a call went out to the police. Within minutes the place was flooded with uniformed officers with lights and torches and vans.

‘It was frantic. I’ve been told they’ve been searching for the baby all night and using heat-seeking cameras and other specialist gear. A baby that age wouldn’t last very long without heat and shelter.’

The 999 call came as temperatures in Brighton dipped to -1C for the second night in a row and local residents believe the couple may have been driven out of open land by the severe cold.

Dean Edwards, said: ‘It was freezing last night, really cold, and the couple must have been forced to get off the Downs and try and find some proper shelter from the cold.

‘Police immediately headed up towards the woods and the allotments and that is where the search has been concentrated. Everyone just hopes the baby can be found alive.’

Laetitia Long, 30, said: ‘Police were searching all night and we could hear the sound of he police helicopter above us. It is quite terrifying really to think that a baby could be out there in the cold all alone. It’s made me very tearful.

‘It was madness to try and camp in this weather. I can’t believe they have been out in it for so long.’

Police also appear to be hunting in the Stanmer Park Nature Reserve, further out of the city, close to Brighton and Hove Albion’s Amex Stadium.

Marten, who had a family trust fund, had withdrawn large amounts of cash, between £5,000 and £15,000, as an escape fund before going on the run. The couple are believed to have bought burner phones and multiple sim cards to avoid being traced. They slept in tents and were spotted in the north-west, London, Essex and across the south-east of London, including at major ports.

The baby is believed to have been born in the back seat of car on around January 5.  

After almost two months of hunting, Marten and Gordon were spotted and arrested 270 miles away without their child. 

The couple have been travelling around the UK by taxi since their car was found burning on the M61 in Bolton, Greater Manchester, on January 5.

Authorities previously believed the couple had been sleeping rough in a blue tent, and had avoided being traced by the police by moving around frequently and keeping their faces covered in CCTV images.

The couple travelled from Bolton to Liverpool, then to Harwich in Essex, then to east London and then to Newhaven in East Sussex, where they were seen near the ferry port on January 8.

Miss Marten, who is from a wealthy aristocratic family, was a promising drama student when she met Mr Gordon in 2016.

Since then the couple have led an isolated life, and in September, when Miss Marten was well into her pregnancy, began moving around rental flats.

It is unknown if the baby was born at full-term or has any health issues.

Anyone who may be able to assist in the search for the couple’s baby is urged to contact 999.