DETECTIVES hunting a rapist who attacked a teenage girl in a Pendle churchyard are still trying to trace a man they want to question about the attack.

A team of officers is continuing to follow up leads after police issued a public appeal for help in tracing Mohammed Shabbir, 30, who arrived in Nelson from Pakistan last September.

The 15-year-old girl was dragged into the grounds of St Mary's Church, Manchester Road, Nelson, on November 9 last and assaulted before being raped.

Her attacker put his hand round her throat to stop her screaming.

Police took the unusual step last week of revealing the name of a person they wanted to question about the attack.

Since then they have had calls from people giving more information.

Detective Inspector Ron Griffiths, who is leading the hunt, said: "We have had a good number of calls of an interesting nature which we are continuing to follow up.

"At the moment no-one has said 'this is where you will find him' but we have a number of leads to go on."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.