Large-scale police search for newborn baby after missing couple Constance Marten and Mark Gordon arrested
More than 200 officers are searching for a newborn baby, after a missing mother and her partner were found and arrested.
Sussex Police said that Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were spotted in Brighton by a member of the public just before 9.30pm on Monday.
They were arrested on suspicion of child neglect and are in police custody, but their baby is still missing.
“Whilst we hold hope that baby is still alive, we agree that the risk to the baby is extremely high,” police said.
Mark Gordon and Constance Marten
Police officers are urgently searching the Roedale Valley Allotments in Brighton, and surrounding woodland near Golf Drive, a road up from the allotment.
Sky correspondent Sabah Choudhry reported that two police forces were searching the area. Special officers are also hunting for the baby, which is believed to be around two months old.
Officers have appealed for members of the public to remain “vigilant” in areas of open land or check any outbuildings they may have on their property.
Police search Roedale Valley Allotments, Brighton
Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford told Sky News: “We are currently looking into all available areas that the baby could be in the open land.
“That will include the search of outbuildings and anywhere the baby could have been left by the couple to seek shelter away from the climate and extreme temperatures.
“The search will include every facility in this location, going out into the open land to try and locate the baby.”
DSI Basford said no further information on where the baby may be located has been gained from questioning the couple, while they remain in custody.
Aerial shots of Roedale Valley Allotments
“I have always remained hopeful that the child is alive, and the investigation we have led is all about the safe recovery and location of the baby,” he added.
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Speaking to The Independent, Marten’s father, Napier Marten, said it was “an immense relief” to know the couple have been found, but it would have been “far better if they had handed themselves in earlier”.
He added that it was “very alarming news her baby has yet to be found”.
Marten, 35, and Gordon, 48, were reported missing after their car broke down near junction four of the M61, near Bolton, on Thursday 5 January.
Over the following days, there were sightings of them in a number of places, including Liverpool, Essex, south London and East Sussex.
Authorities previously believed the couple had been sleeping rough in a blue tent, and had avoided being traced by the police by moving around frequently and keeping their faces covered in CCTV images.
Police search teams in Golf Drive, Brighton
Police in an area of woodland next to Golf Drive
In the days after they went missing, DSI Basford said the baby was “at the heart of the investigation” and that concerns were rising “day by day” for the child’s wellbeing.
Shereen Nimmo, director of midwifery for Barts Health NHS Trust, also issued an appeal urging the couple to bring the baby in for checks.
Marten, who is from a wealthy family, has lived an isolated life with Gordon since they met in 2016.
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
There are eight bays users can inject in
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
The aftercare area
Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’
Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.
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