Man jailed for abduction of seven-year-old girl

A man whose abduction of a seven-year-old girl was thwarted by a passer-by who alerted police has been jailed for eight and a half years.

Police say if on-duty officers hadn't been able to respond and stop Gavin Sykes just 15 minutes later, the victim would have come to further harm.Sykes, who's 42, pleaded guilty to abducting the girl from the Woodlands Avenue are in Holmfirth in June last year.

He was also found guilty of two counts of sexual assault and committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence.

Police received a report at 7.47pm on June 20th reporting the potential abduction and immediately deployed to the Holmfirth area.

The suspect Toyota Celia car was located 15 minutes later and stopped. The victim was rescued by officers and Sykes was detained at the scene and arrested.

The 42-year-old was swiftly charged and appeared before magistrates two days later.

Police Constable Danni Nugent of the Kirklees District Safeguarding Unit, said Sykes was clearly an extremely dangerous individual.