A GRANDFATHER accused of abducting and assaulting two girls then abandoning them semi-naked miles away from their North-East homes will be tried by a jury next year.

The girls were snatched off the streets of Newcastle within months of each other in 1995 and both were left in Darlington.

The carbon-copy snatches of the girls featured on the BBC Crimewatch programme and The Northern Echo offered a £10,000 reward for information leading to the culprit’s conviction.

This rose to £27,000 thanks to two other North-East companies.

In the first case, a five-yearold girl was abducted while playing outside shops in Blakelaw, Newcastle, on May 4, 1995. She was found later that night in a state of semiundress by a taxi driver near the A68 in Darlington.

The incident prompted police to warn parents not to let their children out of their sight.

Four months later, in September 1995, a four-year-old girl vanished from near her home in the West End of Newcastle.

The girl was found 17 hours later after knocking on a door in Bulmers Square, Darlington, saying she had lost her daddy.

David Edward Bryant, of Ulverston, in Cumbria, entered not guilty pleas to four charges relating to the abduction of the two girls when he appeared at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday.

The 64-year-old also denied four further charges in connection with alleged offences in Hampshire, in the Eighties.

The grandfather wore a grey patterned jumper and a moleskin jacket for the hearing before Judge Brian Forster.

Mr Bryant is accused of “unlawfully and by force or fraud” carrying away a fiveyear- old girl against her will, in Gosport, Hampshire, on August 2, 1982.

He is further charged with indecently assaulting the girl on the same date.

Mr Bryant is also charged with abducting a three-yearold girl in Southampton, Hampshire, on May 3, 1983.

He is accused of sexually abusing his victim on the same day.

Mr Bryant is accused of abducting a five-year-old girl from the Blakelaw area of Newcastle on May 4, 1995. He is alleged to have indecently assaulted the girl in Newcastle on the same day.

It is further alleged that Mr Bryant abducted a four-yearold girl in Arthur’s Hill, Newcastle, between September 3 and September 6, 1995. That girl was allegedly indecently assaulted in Newcastle between the same dates.

Judge Forster lifted restrictions which previously prevented the media from reporting proceedings.

He said to Mr Bryant: “This is a very serious matter, you are remanded in custody”.

The judge ordered that the case be listed again on September 26 and that a trial be held starting February 6.