A 30-YEAR-old man has appeared before Blackburn magistrates charged with abduction and indecency charges involving two girls aged 13 and nine years.

Alfred Gray, of Holden Fold, Darwen, was ordered to stand trial at Preston Crown Court on charges of unlawfully keeping the girls from the lawful custody of their mothers, indecently assaulting the 13 year old, supplying her with cannabis and assaulting her with a walking stick causing actual bodily harm.

The offences are alleged to have taken place in a flat in Whalley Crescent, Darwen, on Saturday.

Gray was remanded on bail pending his committal to the crown court with a condition that he lives at a bail hostel outside Lancashire.