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Lesley Molseed murder trial: Woman tells of sex attack by Castree
THE man accused of murdering Lesley Molseed snatched a nine-year-old and sexually abused her, a court heard.
The attack happened just months after Lesley's body was found on moorland above Ripponden in October 1975.
Bradford Crown Court heard that Ronald Castree, 54, abducted the girl, now 41, in a taxi he was driving.
His victim, now a mother-of-two, said she was driven to a derelict house in Rochdale where Castree masturbated in front of her.
He forced her to touch his private parts, pulled her knickers down and put his hand on her bottom, the court heard.
The attack took place nine months after Lesley, of Delamere Road, Rochdale, was stabbed 12 times.
The woman said she and a friend were playing when Castree approached her and bundled her into the front of his car.
She said: "I got took to an old house near where we lived and this fella flashed."
Castree began "playing with himself." She kicked him and ran away.
When she got home she was crying and after telling her mother, police were called.
Castree, of Brandon Crescent, Shaw, Oldham, admitted indecent assault and gross indecency at court in Rochdale in July 1976.
Asked yesterday by Rodney Janeson, QC for Castree, to confirm that she had told police Castree had removed his trousers, pressured her to touch him, pulled down her knickers and placed his hand on her bottom, the woman said: "Yes, that happened."
A statement from the woman's best friend, also in her forties, was read by Julian Goose QC, prosecuting.
The woman described her friend as gullible and vulnerable.
Castree was charged with Lesley's murder last year after DNA from sperm in her knickers was found to match his. Lesley was abducted near her Rochdale home in October 1975.
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