Murderer questioned about sex attacks

A man serving life imprisonment for the murder of a 16-year-old girl is being questioned about two serious sex assaults in the Eighties, police said yesterday.

John Taylor, 46, who was convicted in July of the murder of Leanne Tiernan, has been arrested in connection with two attacks.

The first victim was a woman aged 31. She was attacked in Houghley Gill in Leeds – where Leanne disappeared – in October, 1988. The second was a 21-year-old woman. She was assaulted by a masked man in her home in the Leeds suburb where Leanne lived. Her baby was in the house at the time.

Taylor abducted Leanne on a wooded path not far from her home in Bramley, Leeds, in November 2000.

Detectives examined files on sex attacks covering a decade before re-questioning Taylor. They are also re-examining evidence found at the crime scenes.

After Taylor's conviction, detectives said they were re-examining four unsolved murders in the Yorkshire region: Yvonne Fitt, whose body was found near to where Leanne was discovered, Lindsay Jo Rimer, who disappeared in 1994, Deborah Wood, whose body was found in 1996 and Rebecca Hall, who was found in an alley at Bradford last year.