A candlelit vigil has been held in Brighton to remember a baby whose body was discovered in nearby woodland on Wednesday.
The infant’s remains were found by police scouring the Hollingbury area of Brighton, East Sussex, for the two-month-old child of Constance Marten and her partner Mark Gordon.
The baby found by officers is yet to be formally identified, and a post-mortem examination is due to take place on Friday.
Marten and Gordon are due to appear at Crawley Magistrates’ Court on Friday, charged with gross negligence manslaughter, concealing the birth of a child and perverting the course of justice.
On Thursday evening, local residents gathered at St Mary Magdalen Church in Coldean, a suburb of Brighton, to hold a vigil near to where the baby’s remains where found.
Reverend Betsy Gray-Hammond, who led the gathering, described how the tragedy has rocked the local community.
“This has caused such a cloud of darkness in this area, and we feel we want to bring some light back into that darkness,” the vicar told ITV.
“People here have been so affected by everything that has gone on.
“When you’ve seen searches taking place in your local woodland, it’s brought home to you, and it’s that tiny little innocent life that none of us can explain what happened or why it happened.”
The baby, whose gender is still unknown, is believed to have died some time before it was found.
