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Revealed: The man hunted by police after disappearing with a missing aristocrat and their young daughter is a convicted sex offender who spent 20 years in US prison for rape and assault
- Constance Marten, 35, is missing with her newborn baby and her partner Mark Gordon
- Couple first seen in Lancashire shortly after dropping off car bought six days earlier
- The wanted man is a sex offender with prior convictions for kidnapping in the US.
A father wanted by the police after disappearing with a missing aristocrat and his young daughter is a convicted sex offender who has spent over 20 years in jail.
Mark Gordon, 48, and his partner Constance Marten, 35, have been at the center of a nationwide police manhunt for two weeks as fears grew for the well-being of Miss Marten’s newborn baby.
British citizen Gordon is believed to have been deported from the US in 2014 after apparently spending 24 years in jail for kidnapping and sexual assault.
He was just 15 years old when he was found guilty of the crimes in a Broward County, Fort Lauderdale, Florida court in 1990.
Ms. Marten (pictured) and her partner have been missing for days. However, there have been several sightings, including in Essex and East London.
Ms Marten and her partner Mark Gordon have been missing since January 5 after their car broke down and caught fire on the M61. The couple was seen walking off the highway with their newborn.
Miss Marten comes from an aristocratic land-owning family in Dorset with “ties to the royal family”, and police say they have a substantial amount of cash, allowing them to live off the grid.
His father, Napier Marten, was a page to Queen Elizabeth II before giving up his £115 million fortune.
She is the granddaughter of Mary Anna Marten, whose godmother was the late Queen Mother. The family used to own the Crichel estate in Dorset.
Miss Marten earned a BA from the University of Leeds in 2012 in Arabic and Middle Eastern studies.
According to her LinkedIn page, she used to work as a photojournalist and did a brief stint as a researcher at the London office of the Qatari news channel Al Jazeera after graduating.
Police posted this photo of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon outside East Ham station at around 11:45am on Saturday, January 7.
Detectives from the Metropolitan Police have joined colleagues from the North West in the search after Miss Marten and her partner were spotted outside East Ham station in east London.
The couple disappeared after the car they were traveling in broke down near Bolton on Thursday, January 5.
They left on foot with their baby and have been missing ever since despite an extensive police search.
It is understood that she has not been in contact with her family for some time.
Police previously searched all hotels and B&Bs in Colchester after the mother and her newborn baby went missing.
The family was seen in the city earlier this month, but Ms Marten is believed to have been caught on CCTV after abandoning her car. The car the couple was traveling in had been purchased six days before they disappeared.
Information provided by the taxi drivers suggests that the couple paid cash to travel first to Liverpool and then to Essex.
They then stayed at a hotel using false names. They were seen at Harwich Port in Essex at around 9am on Saturday 7th January. There are regular ferry services from Harwich to the Hook of Holland. But Essex Police said the trio took a taxi from Harwich to East Ham station in Newham later that day.
Police said they are concerned that neither Ms. Marten nor her baby have been evaluated by medical professionals since she gave birth.
In police statements, Mr Gordon is described as wearing dark clothing, while Ms Marten is said to have a southern accent and was wearing a burgundy coat. The baby is swaddled.