Missing aristocrat on run with rapist ‘was a disciple of evangelical pastor’
AN ARISTOCRAT mother who is on the run with her rapist partner and their newborn baby was ‘brainwashed’ by a Nigerian evangelical church leader, a friend has claimed.
Constance Marten, 35, fled more than two weeks ago with their day- old baby alongside partner Mark Gordon.
Police have issued a series of appeals calling for Ms Marten to come forward after the couple’s car burst into flames on the M61 near Bolton on January 5 and they travelled to Liverpool, then harwich in essex, Colchester and east London.
It emerged last week that Gordon, 48, served 20 years in a US jail for raping and kidnapping a woman at age 14 during a knifepoint burglary in 1989. Last night, however, his half- sister defended him – saying she did not agree with the way he has been portrayed and issuing a plea for him to make contact.
It comes as a family friend has said she believes Ms Marten became a ‘disciple’ of an evangelical pastor called TB Joshua while she spent time in Nigeria, and that she ‘was not the same person’ when she returned from the country.
Yesterday it was revealed that
Ms Marten spent around six months living in Nigeria and working for the controversial pastor, apparently becoming one of his followers around the time she went to Leeds university.
A family friend said Ms Marten, whose family used to own the £100million Crichel house estate set in 5,000 acres in Dorset, appeared ‘traumatised’ on her return to the UK.
The prophecies and teachings of Joshua, who died aged 57 in June
2021, have attracted tens of thousands of followers including sports
‘She was brainwashed’
stars and top politicians from Africa and Latin America.
The pastor, described as ‘ the prophet’, was known for his claims that his prayers could help heal the sick through the ‘supernatural power of God bringing health to the human flesh’.
Ms Marten, nicknamed Toots, is believed to have joined Joshua after attending an evangelical style course exploring Christian beliefs in London.
‘She ended up becoming one of his disciples in Nigeria. I believe she got brainwashed while she was over there. The experience traumatised her,’ the friend said.
‘She was not the same person when she came back. She always used to be wild, but also happy, kind and buoyant. She was darker when she came back and she found things more difficult.
‘She never told us what really happened. T B Joshua was a Godlike figure. It was scary, and I believe it changed her. It was a huge part of her life.
‘Toots used to travel a lot from a young age but when she returned from Nigeria, there were strained relations with her family. She was still exuberant in everything, but she found relationships very hard.
‘It was like she came back totally f***ed. She was more rebellious. She thought she had recovered, but it was difficult for her.’ The friend, who asked to remain anonymous, said she believed Ms Marten had now fallen under the influence of Gordon.
She said she became almost fully estranged from her family after they found out about Gordon’s background as a sex offender and tried in vain to warn her off.
It comes as Gordon’s half-sister Karen Satchell last night said she could not understand why her brother was portrayed as he was.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Ms Satchell said: ‘I think it is terrible what they are doing to him.
‘he has done 20 years of persecution in a jail and now he is being persecuted publicly when he is just trying to start his life all over again. They are making it like Mark has kidnapped her and taken her off and that is not the way.’
Ms Satchell, who claims her brother was wrongly convicted in America, added: ‘ I know my brother. If I could say one thing to him it would be, “Mark, reach out to one of us, reach out to me and let me know what is going on, I will do whatever I can to help”.’
Last week Ms Satchell’s elderly mother Sylvia said she believed her son and Ms Marten were in fact married. While the Mail has been unable to find any public records of such a marriage, Ms Satchell said that her brother had also told her that was the case.
It comes after Ms Marten’s father Napier Marten, a former page to the late Queen whose grandfather was the 3rd Baron Alington, made an emotional appeal for her safe return. Writing in The Independent, he said: ‘Darling Constance, even though we remain estranged, I stand by, as I have always done and as the family has always done, to do whatever is necessary for your safe return to us. I beseech you to find a way to turn yourself and your wee one in to the police as soon as possible so you and he or she can be protected.’
Gordon was 14 when he raped a young neighbour at knifepoint after breaking into her home in Florida and holding her captive for four hours with a pair of garden shears as her two children slept in the next room in 1989.
While on the run, he broke into a man’s house and battered him around the head with a shovel, according to US court papers. he served 20 years behind bars before being deported to Britain in 2010.
The Metropolitan Police has appealed to anyone who has information about the couple’s whereabouts to call 020 7175 0785.
‘She came back more rebellious’