A MAN who abducted a young girl from a public park and sexually assaulted her has been jailed.

Colin Luke approached the girl in a park in Bowburn, County Durham, asked her if she liked walks and touched her hair, saying it was 'lovely', Durham Crown Court heard.

He then asked if she wanted to go somewhere quiet to play and took her to a wooded area nearby, Anne Richardson, prosecuting, said.

The girl was scared and asked to go home, but Luke refused to release her hand and said there was “plenty of time”.

Finally, the girl broke free and ran away, finding her mother, who by then was in a state of complete panic.

She had let her daughter play in the park, unaccompanied for the first time, with instructions to be back within 45 minutes, by 4.45pm on the day in question, Wednesday, March 12.

When that deadline passed, she telephoned her daughter and told her to come home. At that stage, she seemed fine, the court heard.

But when the mother called again, ten minutes later, her daughter was hysterical – unable to say where she was or who she was with.

When she asked Luke his name, he lied, saying: “Bob”.

The mother ran to the park, before finally stumbling across her crying daughter as she fled Luke’s clutches.

In a statement read to the court, the mother said: “This has been the worst experience of my life.

“It’s something I will never forget and it will haunt me forever.”

Luke initially denied being in the park at the time, then said he had been drinking.

The 60-year-old, of Lawson Road, Bowburn, admitted abduction and sexually assaulting a child under 13.

Stephen Constantine, mitigating, said Luke was deeply sorry and would comply with any assistance offered to him.

Sentencing, Judge Christopher Prince said Luke had distorted thoughts about girls and there was a significant risk of him causing serious harm to children.

Luke was jailed for four-and-a-half years. Following that, he will be on licence for five years.

He was also made subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order and added to the sex offenders’ register.

Judge Prince asked the public to exercise suitable sensitivity towards the victim’s family.

Luke’s mother has left Bowburn following the incident.