Constance Marten cops 'examine baby blanket found in woods' and inspect burnt items amid fears infant 'came to harm'

POLICE searching for the missing newborn of runaways Constance Marten and Mark Gordon have recovered what is thought to be a baby blanket in the woods.

Pictures from the scene in Brighton, East Sussex, show clothes strewn across the ground as cops were spotted inspecting burnt items.

The white blanket was not placed into an evidence bag.

The finds come as the frantic search for the infant - that may have "come to harm" - enters its third day.

Aristocrat Marten, 35, and her rapist boyfriend Gordon, 48, were cuffed in Stanmer Villas, Brighton, without their newborn late on Monday after a 54-day manhunt.

On Tuesday, police revealed the pair had been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter as they refuse to disclose the location or the gender of their child.

The specific charge gives police the power to detain the couple for a longer period of time while they are questioned.

Over 200 officers are scouring a 91-square-mile area across East Sussex - with a focus on the Stanmer Villas and Roedale Valley Allotments area of Brighton.

An entry on the allotments society Facebook page said officers had forced entry to outbuildings.

Police said they have searched every shed on the veg plot and will remain on site for some time.

Search dogs have also been deployed to the area.

Groups of officers from the Metropolitan Police and London Search and Rescue conducted sweeps of nearby Moulsecoomb Wild Park on Wednesday.

They were seen looking under bushes and behind trees for the two-month-old.

A former police detective told Sky News on Tuesday that cops not knowing the gender of the baby may suggest Marten and Gordon are not answering questions in custody.

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

Before they vanished, it is thought Marten withdrew £15,000 of cash from an ATM.

The couple's car was found on fire on January 5 on the M61 near Bolton, Lancashire - it is thought Constance gave birth in the vehicle or near it in the days surrounding the incident.

They were then spotted on CCTV at various locations across Liverpool, London, Essex and East Sussex.

Following the pair's disappearance, police told how the aristocrat became estranged from her family after meeting Gordon when she was a drama student in 2016.

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.