A MAN was arrested in Rawtenstall last night in connection with the attempted abduction of a 12-year-old schoolgirl last month.

The 32-year-old man sparked a nationwide manhunt after the alleged abduction and indecent assault in Northampton on January 19.

The man, who is of no fixed abode and is said to travel around the country, was today being held at Burnley police station until he is transferred to Northampton.

The alleged abduction attempt happened in Victoria Park, Northampton, when a man wearing a pinstripe suit told the girl he was a police officer and that she was under arrest.

He led her to a silver Vauxhall Corsa car and drove her to a field at Stretton-on-Dunsmore, near Rugby, Warwickshire, where he ordered her to take off items of her school uniform and tried to indecently assault her.

The girl fled barefoot across fields when a passer-by walking his dog heard her screams.

The girl escaped serious injury in the attack, but was treated in hospital for minor cuts and bruises before returning home.

Earlier this month police appealed for sightings of a man suspected of committing a series of burglaries and deception offences in Kent and Sussex who drove a silver Vauxhall Corsa and posed as a police officer.

The car was seen at a petrol station in the Northampton area the day after the abduction attempt, when the driver tried to pay for fuel using a stolen credit card and claimed he was a police officer when questioned.

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