ELEVEN murders and 38 serious sexual assaults are being looked at by Lancashire police’s cold case team.

Advances in DNA technology have enabled the eight-strong team to revisit serious crimes and have led to some recent success, including the arrest of a 50-year-old man in October in connection with a double rape in Burnley 20 years ago.

Police have revealed they are looking at 49 unsolved crimes but no details have been released of the cases.

Detective Inspector Bev Foster said forensic scientists can now get full DNA profiles from samples taken at crime scenes 30 years ago.

Those profiles are loaded on to the DNA database, where computer technology can check against other profiles for match.

Det Insp Foster said: “At the minute there are people looking at all the serious unsolved cases and then we will make a decision on what we prioritise next.

“As a team we work on one case at a time.”

The team is celebrating two years in existence as well as recent successes including George Heyes who was sentenced in April for an indecent assault on a woman in Darwen in 1991.

Det Insp Foster added: “There are a lot of people out there who think they’ve got away with it.

"But we are looking at DNA from crime scenes and these people can expect a knock at the door.

“Cases are never closed and we remain committed to delivering closure and support for the victims.

“Prior to 1995, DNA profiling was only used for the more serious cases and undetected cases could only be solved where a potential suspect was available for comparison.

"The changes came in 1995 with the introduction of the National DNA Database and a new faster, more sensitive DNA method of analysis.”

To prevent raising a victim’s hopes unnecessarily the team won’t contact them until it has identified the offender.