David Bryant 77

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A man who kidnapped four girls in the 1980s and 1990s was caught by 30-year-old DNA evidence, a court has heard.

David Bryant, 65, of Ulverston, had previously denied four charges of kidnap and four of indecent assault, but later changed his pleas.

The children, aged between two and five, were taken in Hampshire in 1982 and 1983, and in Newcastle in 1995.

Bryant will be sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court on 16 March.

Mark Giuliani, prosecuting, said: "A familiar feature of this offending is how the defendant targeted young girls out playing near their homes.

"Children have been effectively robbed of part of their childhood."

Bryant's first victim was a five-year-old girl who was playing outside her home in the street in Hampshire in 1982.

The court heard how her mother had gone into the house to get children's drinks when the girl was taken.

She was found nearby a short time later. Bryant had committed a sex act, leaving DNA on the child, which was used by detectives decades later, the court heard.

The following year, a three-year-old was kidnapped as she played with other children in Southampton.

Bryant had offered to show her some puppies, took her to woods and sexually abused her.

Speaking as an adult, she said: "When I hear an ice cream van playing its music I am left with chills all over my body.

"I am left remembering what happened to me at a very young age."

'Partially clothed'

His third victim was taken from outside her home in Newcastle in the 1990s and found wandering, partially clothed, by a taxi driver in Darlington, 36 miles away.

Later that year a four-year-old, from Newcastle's west end, was abducted as she walked 30 yards to a friend's house.

Bryant admitted he took her to a caravan in Cumbria, abused her then bathed her to get rid of DNA evidence.

He abandoned her on her own in Darlington the next day where she knocked on woman's door and said: "I cannot find my daddy."

Mr Giuliani said Hampshire Police began a cold case review of the sex attacks and through DNA advances tracked down Bryant, having eliminated three of his male relatives from their inquiries.

Bryant, of Rock Cottages, Baycliff, Ulverston, has three previous sex offence convictions on women committed between 1975 and 1984, Mr Giuliani said.