A 64-YEAR-OLD man was last night charged with abducting and assaulting two girls who were abandoned semi-naked miles from their homes during the Nineties.

In a crime that struck terror in parents throughout the North-East, the girls were allegedly snatched off the streets of Newcastle within months of each other, in 1995, and left in Darlington.

Detectives followed up hundreds of calls in their hunt for the man and the case also featured on national TV when Crimewatch UK reconstructed the alleged abductions.

Now it has emerged that police have arrested three men on suspicion of kidnap, indecent assault and rape.

The three have been arrested in connection with offences in Hampshire in the Eighties and the alleged kidnappings in Newcastle in 1995.

Following questioning, two of the men were released without charge.

The Northern Echo understands the arrest came after a cold case review ordered by Hampshire Police.

Advances in technology helped Hampshire detectives make a breakthrough in the cases by linking a sex attack on a three-year-old girl in Southampton to another on a five-year-old girl in Gosport, and two others in the North-East.

A manhunt was first launched when a five-year-old girl was allegedly snatched in daylight as she played near her home in Blakelaw, Newcastle, on May 4, 1995.

Police scoured the surrounding streets after the youngster was allegedly forced into a car outside an off-licence at about 8.30pm.

The child was found by a taxi driver three hours later wondering the outskirts of Darlington in a state of semi-undress.

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

Four months later, a four-year-old girl vanished from near her home in Stanhope Way, in Newcastle's West End.

The girl was allegedly abducted at 7.30pm on September 4, and shortly before 1pm the following day she found knocking on a door in Bulmers Square, Darlington.A reconstruction was staged with a girl of similar appearance, retracing the steps of the youngster, who was spotted walking hand-in-hand with a man in his 40s nearby.

Those behind the almost identical snatches were suspected of cruising the streets in a red saloon car.

David Edward Bryant, 64, of Ulverston, Cumbria, has been charged with four counts of kidnapping and indecent assault and will appear before Newcastle Magistrates Court today.