Police have released new CCTV footage of an aristocrat who disappeared more than six weeks ago with her boyfriend, a registered sex offender in the US, and their newborn baby.
Constance Marten, 35, and her partner, Mark Gordon, 48, have been travelling around the UK by taxi since their car was found burning on the M61 in Bolton, Greater Manchester, on 5 January.
Authorities believe the couple have been sleeping rough in a blue tent and are concerned about the safety of the baby, who has not had any medical attention since birth in early January. It is unknown if the baby was full term or has any health issues.
Police released two CCTV clips on Tuesday, which showed the couple in two locations in Newhaven, East Sussex, on Sunday 8 January – the last confirmed sighting of the pair.
The first clip, from a petrol station forecourt on Avis Road, Newhaven, at 5.18am, showed the pair carrying numerous bags. The couple paused for a moment to exchange some words before continuing down the road.
The second, from a house camera on Cantercrow Hill, Newhaven, showed the couple carrying bags and walking hurriedly down the road an hour later at 6.25am.
In a renewed police appeal to find the pair, DS Lewis Basford said: “We know … they had a large amount of cash available to them. And we still believe that they will have cash available to them, as of today.
“But we also know that with a newborn baby comes the requirement for the items that they require, and also, just day- to- day living for both Constance and Mark.
“We know they’re coming to a position where that cash will be coming to an end.”
He added that officers have been “working around the clock behind the scenes” and have “viewed more than 660 hours of CCTV” as part of their efforts to find them.
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A reward of £10,000 for any information is still being offered after first being announced in January.
A senior midwife, Shereen Nimmo, also issued an appeal directly to Marten, urging her to get medical checks done on her child.
Nimmo, the director of midwifery at Barts Health NHS Trust in London, stressed it was “not too late” for the child to have these checks done, but the longer the couple do not access medical care, the more they are “putting [their] baby at risk”.
Marten, who grew up in the Dorset estate of Crichel House, first met Gordon in 2016.
He was jailed in the late 1980s in Florida 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.