A MAN abducted and indecently assaulted two young girls after asking them to help look for his lost dog, a court heard.

Mark Andrew Hayhurst, 33, took the girls, aged seven and eight, to an empty house in Blackburn where he allegedly assaulted them.

Hayhurst, an assistant operations manager of Mansfield Street, Audenshaw, Manchester, denies two counts of abduction and two of indecent assault in the Bank Top area in August this year.

Fiorella Brereton, prosecuting, told Preston Crown Court on the first day of Hayhurst's trial that both girls were returning home from the shops at around 5pm when Hayhurst approached them and asked for help looking for his white puppy which had gone missing.

In the first alleged incident on August 3, Hayhurst approached two girls walking together but one refused to help, saying her parents had told her never to talk to strangers.

The other girl, however, aged seven, went with Hayhurst who led her into the garden of an empty house nearby where he twice lifted her up to look into another garden next door. Following that alleged assault the girl went home.

In the second alleged incident a week later on August 9 Hayhurst again took a girl, this time aged eight, to the garden of the same house where he lifted up her skirt. The girl immediately ran off and complained to her parents.

Hayhurst was interviewed and arrested a day later. Police seized a pair of trainers during a search of his house which gave a likely match with footprints at the scene of the offences, the court heard.

Miss Brereton added: "This man abducted these little girls. He unlawfully took them against the will of their parents and he indecently assaulted them."

(Proceeding)