A MAN was last night charged with kidnapping and indecent assault after two children were snatched from the region’s streets in 1995.

The girls were abducted from near their homes and then dumped semi-naked miles away in separate, but almost identical, incidents, just four months apart.

The chilling crimes left parents in the North East too scared to let their children play outside.

Those behind the snatches were suspected of stalking the streets in a red saloon car, but were never brought to justice.

Last night police confirmed a 64-year-old man had been charged with kidnapping and indecent assault following offences in Hampshire in the 1980s and offences in Newcastle in the 1990s.

Two other men arrested in Hampshire, on Tuesday, on suspicion of kidnap, indecent assault, and rape, had yesterday been released and told they face no further action.

Det Chief Insp Steve Binks, of Northumbria Police’s Major Investigations Team, who is leading the investigation, said: “We have been working together with Hampshire Police on the investigation.

“We have arrested three men in connection to historic sexual offences which occurred in the mid-1980s in Hampshire and historic sexual offences against two young girls from the Newcastle area in 1995.

“Specially trained officers from both forces are working with the victims and their families.”

A manhunt was launched on May 4, 1995 when a girl of five was snatched in broad daylight as she played near her home in Blakelaw, Newcastle.

Police and neighbours combed the streets after the youngster was forced into a car from outside an off-licence, at around 8.30pm.

The child was later found by a taxi driver three hours later, wandering on the outskirts of Darlington, wearing just her coat and shoes. Her cycling shorts had been taken off and she had been indecently assaulted. The abduction sparked terror in families across the region, as the kidnapper remained at large, and police warned parents not to let their children out of their sight.

Det Chief Insp Chris Symonds, who was leading the investigation at the time, said: “This is a very serious offence. I would implore all parents to know where their children are.”

However, exactly four months later another family was going through the same harrowing ordeal.

At around 7.30pm, on September 4, a four-year-old girl vanished from near her home on Stanhope Way, in Newcastle’s West End.

Shortly before 1pm the next day she was found knocking on a door in Darlington.

Medical examinations later revealed she too had been sexually assaulted.

Police released a description of a red saloon car spotted parked near the scene of the second snatch saying a similar vehicle had featured in other attempted abductions around the region in previous years.

Detectives revealed there were startling similarities between the two cases, and that they believed them to be linked.

A reconstruction was staged with a girl of a similar appearance re-tracing the steps of the youngster, who was spotted walking hand-in-hand with a man in his 40s, nearby after the September snatch.

The victim’s mother also made an appeal for help to trace the pervert.

She said: “This evil man took my little daughter away. He sexually assaulted her and left her to wander in a strange town. He needs to be caught now.”

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 this morning.