COPS are frantically searching to find the newborn baby of Constance Marten and her love Mark Gordon after the couple were found without their child.

The aristocrat and her sex offender husband managed to evade police for 54 days – but have now been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.

A frantic search is now underway to find the baby who is thought to have been born a day or two before their car burst into flames on January 5 on the M61.

Here we retrace their step in days in the run up to their arrests while they hid out in Brighton.

The pair left their home in Eltham, South East London, sometime in September 2022, and began a nomadic lifestyle.

On January 8, the pair appeared in Newhaven, East Sussex, carrying a blue tent – it would be the last time the pair were seen.

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It is thought the trio then headed into the South Downs national park where they camped out.

Last week they were spotted loading up on supplies at a local food bank – without their child.

'LOOKING SHIFTY'

Witnesses told The Mirror the pair were “looking shifty” when they dropped in without an appointment last Wednesday.

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They said: “She was putting the food in bags and he was standing back. I said, ‘Are you together?’, but he was standing back and they looked a bit shifty.

“It was more her face that I recognised. It was probably Tuesday or Wednesday last week.”

The pair were next spotted on Monday morning – in an area police yesterday deemed a “potential crime scene”.

Local Lee Wright, 29, told The Times he spotted Gordon walking towards the Roedale Valley Allotments near Stanmer Villas on Monday morning.

He claims he was having a cigarette when a man matching Gordon’s appearance walked past with a suitcase.

'VERY SUSPICIOUS'

That evening CCTV captured from a house showed the pair walking the streets without their baby moments before their arrest.

A neighbour told The Sun the "very suspicious" duo walked by her house at 8.40pm with no shopping bags, then returned at 9.25pm carrying two bags of "lots of food" from a shop.

The mum-of-two told The Sun: “I thought it looked very odd for that time of night. Why would a man be carrying a large stick?

“They were wearing a lot of layers of clothes, as if they’d been out and about for a long time.

“He was shouting. It was yelling. He was very angry. He had this big stick which was random.

“He was shouting at her. He was animated. They were having an argument.

“Looking back it’s really scary. I’m terrified for that poor baby. There was no sign of a baby when they came by."

COPS SWOOP IN

That couple were located by cops on the residential street shortly before 9.30pm.

They were spotted near a convenience store by a member of the public who then rang 999.

The moment cops swooped on the pair was captured on video by a witness.

Witnesses said cops allegedly pinned him down on the ground for 40 minutes.

Meanwhile a tearful Marten yelled at police to "get off" her lover.

The runaway pair were arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter as the search for their missing baby continues.

A witness of the arrests said: “It was very dramatic.

“I was sitting in my van at the time, about 9.30pm last night. There was a couple in front of me. Two police officers, one male and one female, and they approached the couple.

“They went for the man first, he was struggling and resisting arrest. The woman he was with was shouting at the officers and telling them to be careful as he had issues with mental health.

“A second police car arrived and the back-up officers helped subdue the man. They were kneeling on his back. He was groaning in pain.

“The woman was handcuffed but she was treated much more gently. The man must have resisted arrest for about 40-minutes. I was worried because there was about three or four officers trying to subdue him. They were on top of him to stop him from running off.”

HUNT FOR BABY

At Tuesday's press conference, a Met Police spokesman, speaking alongside Sussex Police, said that cops still do not know the gender of the baby.

A former police detective told Sky News this may suggest Marten and Gordon are not answering questions in custody.

Police are continuing a desperate search across 91-square miles of East Sussex for the missing baby.

Over 200 officers were spotted searching under cars and behind bins in Stanmer Villas and nearby Roedale Valley Allotments.

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The allotment is now being treated as a "potential crime scene".

The daughter of Napier Martin, a former page to the Queen, and granddaughter of Mary Anna Marten, whose godmother was the Queen Mother, Constance comes from a family of wealthy landowners.
She was deemed an 'it girl' when she appeared on upmarket mag Tatler's babe of the month page while she was a student in 2008.

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