Girls' abduction 'could be linked to previous cases'

Detectives believe the abductor thought to have kidnapped Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells could be linked to the kidnapping and…

Detectives believe the abductor thought to have kidnapped Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells could be linked to the kidnapping and indecent assault of a six-year-old girl last year.

Officers from Staffordshire said they have built up data on the man who snatched the youngster in Barton-under-Needwood, near Burton upon Trent.

They say the two cases could be linked because the black Ford Mondeo which the abductor drove in the Barton incident was spotted in the Cambridgeshire village of Glatton - around 20 miles from Soham.

The six-year-old girl was abducted while playing near her home on March 12 last year.

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She was found 30 minutes later by the side of a road in nearby Walton upon Trent, Derbyshire, by a woman who recognised her and took her home to her parents. The youngster had not suffered any physical injury, but her clothing had been removed.

It emerged that the Mondeo was bearing registration plates which had been stolen from a vehicle in Peterborough, which borders Cambridgeshire, two months earlier.

Before that, in September 2000, the same car was spotted in Barton bearing another set of stolen registration plates, this time from a vehicle in Newark, Nottinghamshire. Staffordshire detectives believe a spate of suspicious incidents in Barton around the time of the abduction were the work of the same man.

Detective Sergeant Pete Wyatt, of Staffordshire Police, said officers from the so-called "Barton girl" inquiry would be happy to share their information with colleagues in Cambridgeshire, though an approach had not yet been made.

He told BBC Radio WM: "We have a massive database that we have accrued over the past 18 months and we wanted to let our colleagues in Cambridgeshire know that this fact, of what we had in our system. The Cambridgeshire Police have been inundated with messages and calls. That is why we have not had as much contact yet, but I am sure we will have in the future."

Detectives built up an e-fit of the suspect, who was white, aged 35 to 55, with a round face and wearing a black woollen hat, and made an appeal on BBC Crimewatch.

However, no-one has been arrested in connection with the incidents in Barton.

PA