A 64-YEAR-OLD appeared in court yesterday accused of abducting and indecently assaulting four young girls in a series of attacks in the Eighties and Nineties.

David Edward Bryant, 64, of Ulverston, in Cumbria, appeared before district judge Gary Garland, sitting in Newcastle Magistrates’ Court.

His appearance following a cold case review by the Hampshire and Northumbria police forces.

Mr Bryant was one of three people arrested in connection with a series of offences alleged to have been committed in Hampshire in the Eighties and in Newcastle in 1995.

The grandfather, who has lived with his partner in Ulverston for the past 25 years, appeared in the dock flanked by a security guard.

Balding and with his hair combed back, he was dressed in a grey patterned jumper and grey open-necked shirt. Mr Bryant spoke only to confirm his name.

The court was told, he was 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 was further charged with indecently assaulting a girl under the age of 14 on the same date.

Mr Bryant is also charged with abducting a three-year-old girl in Southampton, Hampshire, on May 3, 1983. He is accused of sexually abusing his victim on the same day.

More than a decade later – and within months of each other – two girls were snatched off the streets of Newcastle and later abandoned in Darlington.

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-year-old 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, the court was told.

The two men arrested with Mr Bryant were released without charge following questioning.

Mr Garland remanded Mr Bryant in custody to appear at Newcastle Crown Court on Thursday, June 9.