Sex offender missing with new mother kept neighbour hostage and sexually ... trends now
Concerned friends have urged a missing mother her to get in touch with police after she disappeared with her newborn baby and sex offender partner, who raped an underage neighbour while armed with garden shears in a horrific hostage scenario lasting almost five hours.
Constance Marten, 35, is currently missing with her British partner Mark Gordon, 48, a registered sex offender who was jailed for 20 years in the US for a vicious sex attack in which he took a neighbour hostage aged just 14.
Tonight the horrific details of his victim's ordeal were revealed for the first time as friends of Ms Marten spoke out about their concerns for the new mother, who has been missing for 12 days.
Gordon's mother last night claimed her son is a 'good boy' and that he has secretly married the British aristocrat, saying she 'does not know what all this is about'.
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 pair were seen leaving the motorway on foot with their newborn
A mugshot from 2010 of Gordon published by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement
Gordon was born in Birmingham, West Midlands, but he, his mother and his half-siblings moved to the US when he was still a child in 1989.
In April of that year, aged just 14, Gordon armed himself with garden shears and a kitchen knife, then attacked his next-door neighbour in a four-and-a-half-hour ordeal which saw him take her hostage and sexually assault her.
Two young children were sleeping in the room next door at the time of the attack, documents show.
US court records describe how Gordon is said to have broken in through the woman's bathroom window, before finding a pair of her stockings which he used as a makeshift mask to cover his face.
Once he had encountered his victim, the documents state: 'The suspect ordered the victim back into the bedroom and while still armed, demanded that the victim undress.'
He is then said to sexually assaulted and raped the victim, who is understood to have been underage at the time.
The file says: 'The suspect placed a nylon stocking over his face to conceal his identity since he lived next door and was known by her.
'The suspect was armed with a kitchen knife as well as a pair of hedge clippers and after the victim came out of her bedroom to investigate the dogs barking, came across the suspect lurking just outside her bedroom door.
'The victim was held for a period of approximately four-and-a-half hours against her will by the armed intruder.
'After miranda [being given the right to remain silent], the suspect admitted to the crime and gave a sworn, taped statement outlining the sequence of events as they occurred.
'It should be noted that during the commission of the crime, the victim's two small children were sleeping in their bedroom.'
Gordon was tried as an adult and sentenced to 20 years in jail after finally being arrested following six weeks spent on the run.
While on the run from the first attack, Gordon committed another violent armed raid just weeks later.
Constance Marten, pictured on the right, at Mist Mag party in 2013 with two other women
Constance Marten - pictured again at the 2013 party - has been missing for two weeks
Constance Marten's social media presence showed a creative side in her early years
The car the pair were driving broke down and caught fire, as seen in this picture from police
Police released this picture of Constance Marten and Mark Gordon outside East Ham station at around 11.45am on January 7
On May 21, he broke into a man's house while he was sleeping, grabbed a kitchen knife and then battered the householder around the head with a heavy shovel when he awoke.
He then fled empty-handed leaving the victim seriously injured.
Police finally caught up with Gordon a month later on June 13 when he confessed to both raids.
Last night, his mother Sylvia, 83, claimed the pair had secretly married 'some time ago' after Ms Marten became pregnant.
She said: 'I am very concerned. I love my son. He is a good boy so I don't know what this is all about.
'I am worried for all of them. I am thinking, I wonder if someone kidnapped them?'
Friend Noisette Tahoun, who Ms Marten met while studying abroad in Egypt as part of her degree in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, has issued an emotional appeal for Ms Marten to get in touch with her loved ones.
She said Ms Marten 'started being distant from everyone' when she met Gordon in 2016, and stopped replying to messages, even from her family.
Noisette said: 'She seemed fine when I visited her in the UK, and then she would message me saying we needed to catch up and find the right time.
'But when she got with her recent partner, she started being distant from everyone and not replying to any messages. I spoke to her sister to check if she was okay, but she wasn't hearing back from her either.'
She told The Mirror: 'Constance is a magnificent person and just awesome, very kind
