Constance Marten ‘gave birth in a car after hiding the pregnancy from family for five months’

A mother who disappeared two weeks ago with her convicted sex offender boyfriend has been revealed to have given birth to her son in the back of a car.

Emergency personnel found placenta and other signs of labor in the back seat of the car Constance Marten and Mark Gordon abandoned on the M61, sources close to the investigation told The Daily Telegraph.

Investigators found the car, which had caught fire, on January 5. They believe that Ms. Marten, 35, had given birth a day or two earlier and did not receive the necessary medical attention.

Ms Marten and Gordon, 48, disappeared after hiding their pregnancy for five months. Her mother has alleged that the couple secretly married after learning she was pregnant.

The police believe that Ms. Marten, who comes from an aristocratic family, did everything possible to hide the birth of her son. They are worried about the newborn.

The couple are understood to have lived a secluded life since they met in 2016 in London, with then drama student Ms Marten cutting ties with family and friends.

It is unclear how they met, but Gordon is believed to have lived near her and worked as a laborer. Last September, they began moving around the country, renting AirBnBs for short periods.

On 5 January, they were on the M61 when their car broke down and caught fire near junction four at Farnworth, Bolton.

Detectives do not believe the couple intentionally set fire to the car, which had been purchased with cash shortly before it was found. They suspect that the vehicle had suffered a mechanical failure.

The couple then walked to Anchor Lane Bridge, where they took a taxi to Liverpool before taking another to Harwich, Essex.

They were seen in Colchester on Friday the 6th and Saturday the 7th of January, when they took another taxi to East Ham station in Newham, London.

Whenever Ms Marten and Mr Gordon are seen on CCTV, they cover their faces or look away, and have kept the baby covered.

Investigators say the couple appear to know how to evade authorities, making their search difficult.

They also suspect that the couple lost most of their belongings in the car fire.

The Metropolitan Police, which is leading the search to find the couple and newborn, said they have a substantial amount of cash from a multi-million dollar trust fund that allows them to live off the grid.

Police believe they could be anywhere in the UK and are asking the public to come forward with any information that could help find them.

Some 200 officers are working on the search and have reviewed more than 200 hours of CCTV footage since the couple were last seen on January 7.

It was revealed yesterday that Gordon is a registered sex offender who was jailed for 20 years in the US for a vicious sexual assault in which he took a neighbor hostage when he was just 14 years old.

Gordon was born in Birmingham, West Midlands, but he, his mother and half-siblings moved to the US while he was still a child in 1989.

In April of that year, at just 14 years old, Gordon armed himself with pruning shears and a kitchen knife, then attacked his neighbor in a four-and-a-half-hour ordeal in which he held her hostage and sexually assaulted her.

Two young children were sleeping in the next room at the time of the attack, the documents show.

US court records describe how Gordon is said to have broken in through the woman’s bathroom window, before finding a pair of stockings which he wore as a makeshift mask to cover his face.

Once he met his victim, the documents say: “The suspect ordered the victim to return to the bedroom and, while still armed, demanded that the victim strip.”

He then sexually assaulted and raped the victim.

There were a total of six charges against Gordon related to the April 29 attack: one count of armed kidnapping, four separate counts of armed sexual assault and one count of robbery with a deadly weapon. He was convicted on all charges.

Gordon’s mother, Sylvia, 83, insisted that her son is a “good boy” and claimed that he secretly married Mrs Marten, adding that she “doesn’t know what this is all about”.

‘I’m very worried. I love my son. He’s a good guy, so I don’t know what this is all about,” he said.

‘I’m worried about all of them. I’m thinking, I wonder if someone kidnapped them.

His comments come after film producer Napier Marten pleaded with his daughter Constance to keep her and their son safe.

Mr Marten, son of Mary Anna Marten, whose godmother was the late Queen Mother, told the Independent: ‘Dear Constance, even though we remain estranged at this time, I am standing by, as I always have and as the family always has, to do whatever it takes to have you safely return to us.

‘I beg you to find a way to turn yourself and your little one over to the police as soon as possible, so that you and he or she can be protected.

‘Only then can a healing and recovery process begin, however long, however difficult.

We are deeply concerned for your well-being and that of your baby. I would like you to understand that the family will do everything necessary for your well-being.

And I also wish you to understand that you are very, very loved in any circumstances.