A TRANSVESTITE rapist who targeted a 12-year-old girl on her way to school has admitted another sex attack.

Alan Blackwell, who is serving a 14-year sentence, pounced on the schoolgirl in Washington, Wearside, after hiding in bushes.

The attack, which happened while Blackwell was wearing women's clothes, left the youngster fearing she was going to be killed.

Blackwell was branded an extreme danger to the public when he was sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court in 1997.

The 48-year-old was brought back to court yesterday where he admitted an attempted rape three years before that attack, in June 1994. On that occasion his victim was walking home from a nightclub when she was dragged into undergrowth at John Reid Road, South Shields.

A manhunt failed to trace the attacker but detectives from the Operation Phoenix team, who re-investigate cold cases, managed to link him through forensic samples.

Blackwell, formerly of Sandiacres, Hedworth, Jarrow, South Tyneside, will be sentenced in six weeks after the preparation of reports.