David Newton was charged yesterday with the rape, indecent assault, abduction and false imprisonment of a 16-year-old girl and the kidnap and false imprisonment of her 11-year-old brother in Halton, Leeds in 1997.

He is also charged with the attempted murder and attempted rape of a 52-year-old woman in 2006, West Yorkshire Police said.

In the first attack 11 years ago, the teenage girl was raped at knifepoint on parkland and her brother was forced to lie in bushes nearby.

The attack happened as the pair searched for frogspawn.

Nine years later in the second attack, a dog walker on Ilkley Moor was knocked to the ground and punched in the face repeatedly until she lost consciousness.

When the woman came round, she was being strangled and lost consciousness again.

Newton, originally from Knottingley, West Yorkshire, was arrested in the Hayle area of Cornwall on Tuesday after police launched a nationwide manhunt.

Today he appeared for just two minutes at Bradford Crown Court.
Newton spoke only to confirm his name, give his date of birth and to say he had no fixed address.

He stood in the dock wearing a black t-shirt flanked by two women security officers.

There was no application for bail and he was remanded in custody to appear at Bradford Crown Court on July 15.