'Girl's killer trapped by his DNA 30 years later' after innocent man had been jailed

Lesley Molseed, 11, disappeared in 1975 after her mother sent her to the shops near their home to buy a loaf of bread.

Her body was found three days later on the moors. She had been stabbed 12 times and sexually assaulted.

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The following year, Stefan Kiszko, a tax clerk, was convicted of Lesley's murder and jailed, the court heard.

In one of Britain's most notorious miscarriages of justice, he spent 16 years in prison before being cleared in 1991.

But yesterday Bradford Crown Court was told that evidence which helped prove Mr Kiszko did not kill the schoolgirl, had been used to establish the guilt of Ronald Castree, who now stands in the dock charged with the murder.

Samples taken from her clothing at the time were found to match DNA taken from former comics dealer Castree, 54, it was claimed, when he was arrested on an unrelated matter in 2005.

Lesley, who had been born with a heart defect and was small for her age, disappeared on October 5, 1975, after her mother sent her to the shops in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, to buy bread and an air freshener.

Yesterday her mother, April Garrett told the court about her 'dainty' daughter and the Sunday morning of her disappearance.

The 70-year-old recalled how the girl could be "a little rogue, a little imp" but was also "enchanting, a little darling".

She told how Lesley, her brother Frederick, 12, and sister Laura, 13, took it in turns to go on errands in return for some pocket money.

When asked to go to the shops, Lesley pointed out it was her brother's turn, but he was out playing football.

"She said, 'Does that mean I'll get Fred's thruppence?'

"I said, 'No, you won't get Fred's thruppence – that would give you sixpence. How would you like me to give Fred your thruppence?'."

In the end, Lesley – wearing her sister's Bay City Rollers socks – agreed to go, taking a pound note to pay for the groceries and a blue shopping bag. But she never returned.

Her body was found three days later face-down on Rishworth Moor between Ripponden, West Yorkshire, and Oldham.

The following year Kiszko was convicted of Lesley's murder and jailed, the court heard.

But it was later established that sperm contained in samples taken from her clothing could not have been his, as he was infertile.

He was cleared in 1991, but died soon after.

By then, Lesley's clothing had been destroyed, but pieces of adhesive tape used to take samples from her underwear were retained.

In 1999 they were used to create a DNA profile, said Julian Goose, QC, prosecuting.

Following Castree's arrest on a separate, unspecified matter in 2005, he was found to be an "exact" match, he added.

At the time of Lesley's murder, Castree, then 22, was living threequarters of a mile from where she disappeared, the court heard.

He was working parttime as a taxi driver.

In 1976, Castree admitted the indecent assault of a nine-yearold girl, demonstrating his "propensity or tendency" to attack young girls sexually, Mr Goose went on.

On his arrest for Lesley's murder in 2006 Castree allegedly said: "I've been expecting this for years," although afterwards he claimed he actually said: "I was threatened with this years ago."

Mr Goose said Castree claimed he had been referring to an argument he had with two police officers in 1979 during which they said they would "fit him up" for Lesley's murder.

But the barrister said this was "illogical and absurd" given that Kiszko was at the time thought to be her killer and that Castree's semen could not have been taken from him to frame him without his knowledge.

"Lesley had been abducted from Rochdale and driven to the scene on the moors where she was sexually attacked and then murdered," he said.

"The man who carried out those acts had a sexual interest in young girls and, in a violent rage, killed Lesley Molseed in a frenzied attack with a knife.

"That man was definitely not Stefan Kiszko. The prosecution say that it was the defendant, Ronald Castree, who abducted, sexually assaulted and then murdered Lesley Molseed."

Castree, of Shaw, near Oldham, denies murder.

The trial continues.