Paedophile jailed for girl kidnaps (From Knutsford Guardian)

Paedophile jailed for girl kidnaps

11:31am Tuesday 27th March 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013

A paedophile who snatched four girls from the street in the 1980s and 1990s and sexually abused his victims before dumping them has been given a 17-year jail sentence.

David Bryant, 65, from Ulverston, Cumbria, felt "a sense of grievance" having been caught so long after the offences, Newcastle Crown Court was told.

The balding grandfather was sentenced for four attacks on victims in Hampshire and Tyneside. He admitted kidnap and sexual assault after cold-case detectives made a DNA link to catch him 30 years after he first struck.

Judge James Goss, the Recorder of Newcastle, said: "All your victims were very young girls aged five or under. There was a distinct pattern to your offences. In each case you approached your victim near to where you were working at the time, took them to a place of privacy where you sexually assaulted them."

Bryant's offending against young girls became more serious as he continued to evade capture, with the mother of his final victim believing her daughter was dead as she had been missing for 17 hours.

Judge Goss said Bryant was caught after police arrested one of his brothers, believed to be on suspicion of an unrelated offence.

He told the defendant: "You feel a sense of grievance about this, believing you had got away with it for so long."

The judge said he did not attach much weight to the apology and claims of remorse Bryant has since proffered.

Bryant admitted being tempted to snatch more girls since the 1990s offences, but told his probation officer he had managed to control the urge.

Police have not linked Bryant, who has convictions for sexually assaulting women, to any outstanding child abduction investigations.