THE jury in the case of a man accused of abducting and indecently assaulting two young girls in Blackburn will return to court this morning after retiring last night to consider their verdict.

They were sent home yesterday evening by trial judge Edward Blake after considering the evidence for two hours but failing to reach a verdict in that time.

Mark Hayhurst, 33, of Mansfield Street, Audenshaw, Manchester, is accused of abducting and indecently assaulting two girls aged seven and eight in the Bank Top area of Blackburn in August this year. During the trial the girls told the court they had been approached on two separate days by a man who asked them to help look for his missing dog.

The man then took the girls into a derelict garden where he assaulted them. Hayhurst, who denies the charges, was arrested a day after the second assault on August 10. He admitted being in the area at the time of the assaults but claimed on one occasion he was visiting the chemist's with one of his young sons and on the second occasion had gone to the area for a haircut.

The court heard that a footprint matching a pair of Hayhurst's trainers which were later recovered from his home address matched a print found at the scene of the assaults.

Forensic scientists from the police laboratory at Euxton near Chorley said the match was highly likely to fit with the tread on Hayhurst's trainers.

Hayhurst claimed that the police had put the print in the garden in an attempt to frame him for the crimes and had also planted a pair of child's knickers which were found by police in Hayhurst's briefcase.

His claims of a police set up were dismissed by the prosecution as preposterous.

(Proceeding)