Constance Marten baby updates — Investigation enters ‘new phase’ as aristocrat and Mark Gordon charged
CONSTANCE Marten and her lover Mark Gordon have been charged with gross negligence manslaughter.
Marten, 35, and Gordon, 48, were also charged with concealing a birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.
The pair will appear at Brighton Magistrates' Court on Friday.
It comes after Chief Superintendent James Collis of Sussex Police said the large-scale police presence will be scaled back as the investigation moves into a “new phase”.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday he added: “The latest developments mean that the investigation is moving into a new phase and while the Metropolitan Police will remain in the area, the larger police presence for the search will be scaled back.”
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When did police find the couple?
The couple were located - without their one-month-old baby - on a residential street shortly before 9.30pm and an urgent search continues in the area.
Cops have been seen searching under cars and behind bins this morning in a bid to find the newborn.
And officers had appeared focused on a caravan - though its believed the pair had been sleeping outside.
Police say they are still hoping the baby is alive and have appealed to anybody who might be looking after the child to come forward.
Police issues update as temperatures plunge
POLICE have given a major update on their search for Constance Marten and her lover Mark Gordon’s missing newborn baby.
The couple were last night found by cops in Brighton after 54 days on the run.
Temperatures in the area last night dropped to 1C - but police say they are still hoping the baby is alive.
DSI Lewis Bashford from the Met police said: “We can’t say at this time if it’s a boy or a girl and we are still awaiting test results from the placenta found in their car on the M61.
“At the moment, we are still in the position where they have been arrested on suspicion of child neglect and there is a search for the baby.
“We are looking at open land, outbuildings where they may have placed the baby while they were in the local area before we arrested them.
“There’s nothing to say they were in the caravan, we still think they were living in the outdoor environment and the that is leading us, and the arrest location, to the outdoor search.
“I think, we’ve got to keep the hope that maybe they have allowed somebody else to care for the baby who thinks they are doing some good on behalf of the couple but as we know, as the temperature drops and the longer the baby goes without parents the risks are high.”