Constance Marten: Rapist boyfriend of missing aristocrat ‘can’t leave the country’ as search continues

A rapist who disappeared with his aristocratic partner and their newborn baby cannot leave the UK, it is understood – casting doubt on claims the couple may have fled overseas.

Police are looking for Mark Gordon, Constance Marten and their child after they abandoned their car on the M61 in Bolton, Greater Manchester on January 5.

More than 100 officers took part in the search, sifting through more than 220 hours of CCTV, in addition to gaining support from the National Crime Agency (NCA).

Talk to The Independent on Monday, the former chief constable of Greater Manchester Sir Peter Fahy said the amount of resources behind the case and the involvement of the NCA suggest the family may already be overseas.

But a source close to Ms Marten said The Independent Gordon does not have a passport, so it is unlikely that he left the country.

A registered sex offender, Gordon, 48, grew up in Florida where he was convicted of assaulting and raping a woman in the 1980s when he was 14.

Born in Birmingham, he served two decades in prison before being deported to the UK in 2010.

Fresh concerns for the runaway mother and her baby, believed to be just a few weeks old, were raised earlier on Tuesday as officers suggested they were sleeping in a tent in sub-zero temperatures.

The Met has released a series of new CCTV images of Ms Marten and Gordon, who were seen buying a tent at Argos in Whitechapel, east London, just two days after they went missing.

Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford, leading the investigation, said: ‘We are extremely concerned that a newborn baby – less than a week old at the time on January 7 – was exposed to sub-zero temperatures if Mark and Constance were camping. somewhere as our evidence suggests.

“No child, especially a tiny newborn, should be forced to endure such dangerous, life-threatening conditions.”

He went on to suggest the couple could try to “blend into homeless communities, here in London or further afield, or they could camp in more rural or wooded areas”.

The pair have been linked with Wales, Leeds, Sheffield and Bolton. The last place they lived was in the northern England region since September, where they stayed in Air BnBs for one to two nights.

It’s unclear how Ms Marten and Gordon met, although the couple have lived an isolated life since meeting in 2016.

Last week, Mr. Marten’s father, Napier made an emotional appeal asking her daughter to turn herself in to the police so that she and her baby “can be protected”.