Constance Martin: The Runaway Heiress, Her Convicted Rape Partner, and the Haunting Struggle at the Heart of the British Aristocracy

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They abandon their burning car on the steel shoulder of the M61 and flee – an aristocrat, a sex offender, and their child, who was born only a day or two earlier. From Hell near Bolton, which is believed to have destroyed all their property, they traveled first to Liverpool, then to Harwich in Essex, to Colchester and then to East Ham Station in East London, over the course of two days.

This blurry CCTV footage from Jan. 7 was the last confirmed sighting of 35-year-old Constance Martin, the heiress’s face wrapped in a red scarf, her baby wrapped inside her coat. At her side is 48-year-old convicted rapist Mark Gordon, covering his head and leaning away from the camera. The police, concerned about the baby’s health, are looking for the couple, but they are believed to have a large amount of money, which allows them to stay off the grid.

So how did Martin, whose father was a page to Elizabeth II, go from gracing the pages of society’s Tatler bible to eloping with a man who, after burglarizing and raping a woman as a teenager, spent 20 years in prison in Florida before being deported to Britain?

Last confirmed sighting of Constance Martin and Mark Gordon

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Martin’s father, Napier, refers to the estrangement that began when his daughter met Gordon, which led to her moving away from family and friends to embark on an itinerant life. Making a heartfelt plea to Constance through The Independent, Napier—his voice swaying with emotion—said to his daughter: “Dear Constance, though we remain apart for the time being, I stand still, as I always have and as family always do whatever is Necessary for your safe return to us.

“The past eight years have been very traumatic for all the family as well as for your friends, as they must be for you. To see you vulnerable again is the test in the extreme.

“Please Constance, have the courage to present yourself to the police as soon as you can.”

Martin was born in 1987 to parents Napier and Virginie de Celliers. Napier’s mother, Marie Anna Martin—Constance’s grandmother—was the Queen Mother’s protégé and classmate of Princess Margaret.

The family had a home befitting their aristocratic lineage. Constance and her younger siblings — Maximilian, now 34, and Tobias, 31 — have been brought up in Chrishill House, which is in the heart of 5,000 acres of Dorset Gardens. One of the grandest Georgian mansions in England, the house was the setting for the 1996 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma, ​​starring Ewan McGregor and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Watch: A father’s emotional plea for his missing daughter

She attended St Mary’s School of Shaftesbury, an independent Roman Catholic girls’ school whose alumna included novelist Sophie Kinsella. Laura Lopez, curator of The Queen’s Daughter and Andrew Parker Bowles; and Martha Fiennes, a director, writer, and producer, whose brother is actor Ralph Fiennes. By the time the school closed in 2020, due to financial problems caused by the pandemic, the school had charged fees of over £30,000 a year.

When she was nine years old, Constance’s father had what has been described as a “awakening”. He later tells how a voice in his head told him to give up the family fortune of £115 million, shave his head and fly to Australia. Napier followed her request and, having duly shaved his head, had an out-of-body experience while standing on top of a cliff with a group of Aboriginal Australians. “Everything in my life was a complete empty shell,” he said. He lived in a truck and trained as a head massager. Although he returns to the UK, and later works as a tree surgeon, Napier has Krechel transferred to Max. In 2013 Max sold the house and 400 acres of surrounding land to Richard Chilton, an American hedge fund billionaire, for £34m; It was initially offered for £98m. The King was thought to be interested in buying the house as an estate for the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

Crichel House is set in 5,000 acres of Dorset gardens

(Toby / Geo)

Constance’s growing up years at Crishel were, as she later recalled, filled with “naked outings, napping amidst [hay bales]Tots, as she is known to friends and family, studied Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Leeds, starting in 2008. As a student, she appeared as Tatler’s “Babe of the Month”, describing her cider as “one of my five a day and elaborate a plan to tattoo a turtle on her foot. She would attend glamorous parties, often at estates like the one she grew up on, and vacation at ski resorts like Verbier.

She also ventured off the beaten path of It-Girl. During the year abroad that she was assigned with her undergraduate studies, she was in downtown Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the 2011 Arab Spring. Martin graduated with a 2.1 in 2012.

Just beautiful, full of life, full of kindness…and she was so talented

She then became a researcher in the London bureau of the Qatari English-language news channel Al-Jazeera. This job, according to Marten’s LinkedIn profile, lasted eleven months. Subsequently, Martin worked briefly as a project manager at Rich Mix Theatre, East London, and as a freelance photographer. Martin showed talent. Her LinkedIn page records her winning three photography awards, including one for a photo she took in Tahrir Square during the revolution. In 2014, she became professionally qualified as a journalist, and spent an intern day at the Daily Mail.

Supported apparently by a trust fund, Martin enrolled in an acting course at Eastern 15 Drama School in Essex. A classmate told The Sunday Times that Martyn was “just beautiful, full of life, full of kindness…and she was very, very talented”.

Martine left the drama course in 2016

(supplied)

But they said Martin dropped out of the course in 2016. She had changed, and was in an irregular relationship with a man her classmate had never met.

Who was the man? Looks like it was Mark Gordon. Thirteen years her senior, Gordon was born in Birmingham, and moved with his mother and half-siblings to Florida when he was young. In 1990, when he was 15, Gordon was found guilty of kidnapping and sexual battery, and served 20 years in prison. It was registered as a migration in 2010.

US court records describe how Gordon is said to have broken through the window of the woman’s bathroom, before finding a pair of stockings which he used as a makeshift mask to cover his face.

Once he met his victim, the documents state: “The suspect ordered the victim back to the bedroom and, while still armed, demanded that the victim undress.”

Then he is said to have sexually assaulted and raped the victim.

The duo traveled more than 200 miles across England

(The Independent)

The file reportedly described Gordon’s actions once he entered the house: “The suspect put a nylon stocking over his face to hide his identity since he lived next door and knew her.

“The suspect was armed with a kitchen knife as well as fence shears and after the victim came out of her bedroom to investigate the dogs barking, she came across the suspect lurking outside her bedroom door.

“The victim was held for nearly four and a half hours against her will by the armed intruder.

After Miranda [being given the right to remain silent]The suspect confessed to the crime and provided a sworn statement showing the sequence of events as they occurred.

“It should be noted that during the commission of the crime, the two young children of the victim were sleeping in their bedroom.”

It is unclear how he and Martin met, but it is reported that they moved into a small terraced house in Ilford, east London. A neighbor told The Sunday Times that the couple were “mysterious”. Clearly estranged from her family at this point, Martine didn’t appear in a Vogue photoshoot for her brother Max’s 2021 wedding to jewelry designer Ruth Eimer.

Marten’s publicly accessible productions have been off the air on social media since 2016. Holiday photos have been replaced by silence, sometimes wistful well-wishes from friends and relations who wonder where “Toots” have gone.

Mark Gordon spent 20 years in a prison in the United States

(metropolitan police)

Gordon and Martin were reportedly evicted from their home in Ilford. It is unclear where they went next, although by August 2020 they were living on the Coldharbour Estate in Greenwich. Neighbors told the Evening Standard that screaming could sometimes be heard from the apartment and that Martin and Gordon spent extended periods of time elsewhere. The lease was in Martin’s name, but the couple did not pay the rent. They were driven out in August last year, and reportedly left smoke damage and a partially collapsed roof, with damage worth thousands of pounds.

Where they went next is still not clear. Gordon’s mother, Sylvia, who lives in Florida, told the Daily Mail that she believes the couple have been secretly married “for quite some time.”

There are now more than 200 officers looking for the couple, but they move surreptitiously, hiding from cameras, paying cash and are believed to be booking hotels under false names. It is believed that their journey to Harwich Port was in the hope of catching a ferry to the continent. Detectives Superintendent Lewis Basford, who is leading the investigation, said: “There is no indication that any of them have done any kind of intentional harm – we just need to make sure they are okay, especially the child, and do not require any medical assistance for any underlying problems.”

Car fire on the M61 near Bolton

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De Celliers, now a psychotherapist and divorcee from Napier, has not spoken publicly about their daughter’s disappearance. Napier, now a film and music producer, said the family had known about Gordon’s past for some time, which caused them great concern. Now he hopes his runaway daughter will return and the rift that tore this lavish heiress from her family can be mended. In his appeal, he told Constance: “I beg you to find a way to turn yourself and your father over to the police as soon as possible, so that you and he or she may be protected. Only then can the process of healing and recovery begin, however long, however difficult.”

Anyone with information on the family’s whereabouts should contact the Accident Room on 020 7175 0785.

Alternatively, information can be reported 100% anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. They never ask for personal details nor track your device.

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