The partner of a mother missing with a newborn baby is a convicted rapist who served 20 years in prison.
Mark Gordon and aristocrat’s daughter Constance Marten went missing with their newborn baby on 5 January, when they left their broken-down vehicle on the M61 near Bolton.
The Metropolitan Police has released a fresh appeal in the “high risk” search as officers fear the trio could be “anywhere in the UK”.
Gordon, 48, is a registered sex offender who was jailed in the late 1980s in the US after raping and assaulting a woman in her early 20s when he was 14 years-old.
He was jailed in the state of Florida when he was 16 and served a 20-year sentence before being deported back to the UK in 2010.
Ms Marten, 35, is the granddaughter of Mary Anna Marten, a British Museum trustee whose godmother was the late Queen Mother, and who used to own the Crichel estate in Dorset.
Police are appealing to the public to help find the family, due to concern for the baby who was believed to be one to two days old at the time they fled the car.
Detective superintendent Lewis Basford from the Metropolitan Police said: “Our top priority is ensuring the safety and welfare of the newborn baby.
“We are asking the public’s help for information and sightings of the couple with the baby so we can understand the welfare of the baby.”
There has been no medical contact before or after Ms Marten’s pregnancy, increasing concern for the welfare of the child who is believed to have been delivered in the vehicle which caught fire along the motorway.
It is believed the couple met in 2016 and began dating after she dropped out of East London acting school and lost contact with friends.
The pair are understood to be in possession of a substantial amount of money with their taxi journeys being paid in cash amounting to several hundreds of pounds. Both families of the pair have been made aware of their disappearance but both are understood to be estranged.
According to the Metropolitan Police, the couple was initially travelling in a vehicle that was found broken down near junction four – Farnworth, Bolton – of the M61 on 5 January around 6.30pm. Police believe the car malfunctioned and caught fire and was not intentionally destroyed by the couple.
Greater Manchester Police later found the vehicle with the couple’s belongings burnt.
Following the escape from the car, the pair walked to Anchor Lane bridge and hailed a taxi to Liverpool before taking another taxi to Harwich in Essex arriving just after midnight on Friday, 6 January.
Further sightings spotted the pair in Colchester with further inquiries revealing they took a taxi to East Ham station. This is the location of their last confirmed sighting on Saturday, 7 January between 10.30am and 12.30pm.
Police said they could now be anywhere in the UK and are “demonstrating awareness of evasion from authorities.”
More than 100 officers are involved in the investigation reviewing more than 223 CCTV hours with assistance from the National Crime Agency.
The couple is connected to Wales, Leeds, Sheffield and Bolton and the last place they lived was in the north England area dating back to September staying in Air BnBs for one to two nights.
Ms Marten and Gordon sighted outside of East Ham station at around 11.45am on Saturday January 7
