A MAN accused of abducting and indecently assaulting two young girls in Blackburn significantly changed his appearance before standing in an identification parade, a court heard.

Mark Andrew Hayhurst shaved off his moustache and cut his hair during the five weeks after his arrest on August 10, Preston Crown Court was told.

Four witnesses involved in the case including the two alleged victims failed to pick out Hayhurst from the parade.

Hayhurst, 33, an assistant operations manager of Mansfield Street, Audenshaw, Manchester, is denies abducting and indecently assaulting two girls aged seven and eight in the Bank Top area of Blackburn in August.

The jury heard that both girls had been assaulted after being asked to help a man look for his missing dog.

Inspector Deborah Howard of Blackburn police told the court that when she arranged Hayhurst's identity parade she noticed how he had changed his appearance from a photograph she had seen.

She added: "When I saw him he hadn't got a moustache and his hair had been shaved quite close to his head. As I understood it he should have had a moustache and his hair was longer on a photograph taken shortly after his arrest. I was concerned because I considered the change in his appearance to be a significant one."

She added that Hayhurst had agreed to take part in the identity parade and that all four witnesses had failed to give a positive identification.

Earlier the court heard that a pair of trainers recovered from Hayhurst's home address made a likely match with footprints found on a wooden board in the derelict garden where the indecent assaults were alleged to have taken place.

The trainers which were seized on the day of Hayhurst's arrest on August 10 were sent to Lancashire police's forensic science laboratory in Chorley.

(Proceeding)