DETECTIVES investigating the brutal murder of 11-year-old Lesley Molseed a quarter of a century ago have named a former East Lancashire man as a prime suspect.

Detective Chief Supt Max McLean, who is leading inquiries into Lesley's death, said they wanted to question 56-year-old Raymond Hewlett.

Mr Hewlett lived in Todmorden from the early 1960s until the mid 1970s. It is understood that while working as a fairground worker he may also have lived in Bacup for a short time.

He left for Southern Ireland in the days after Lesley's body was found.

Lesley's body was found on moorland above Ripponden on October 5, 1975, three days after she was abducted while running an errand from her home in Rochdale.

She was stabbed twelve times in the chest and head with a small knife.

In one of the country's worst miscarriages of justice Inland Revenue clerk Stefan Kiszko was convicted of murder.

He served 16 years in prison before DNA evidence proved he was innocent. He died from a heart attack only months after his release.

While in Todmorden he lived in Dineley Avenue on the Ashenhurst council estate.

Det Chief Supt McLean said police would like to talk to Mr Hewlett, who had lived in Todmorden for a considerable time after leaving the Scots Guards.

It is the first time that police have openly named Hewlett as a suspect following an investigation into the case by a national newspaper.

Det Chief Supt McLean said: "He was considered a suspect right from the start in 1975 but then we had the conviction of Stefan Kiszko, a wrongful conviction as it proved."

An incident room has been running from Brighouse police station for the last ten years.

Anyone with information should contact incident room on 01484 405275.