12:04pm Friday 30th July 2010
By Peter Magill
A MANHUNT for an alleged rapist in Burnley has seen a suspect arrested in a dramatic canalside swoop this morning.
Detectives detained a man, believed to be David Laing Taylor, in relation to a sex attack beside the Leeds Liverpool Canal at Armley, West Yorkshire.
He was arrested beside the same waterway in Elm Street, Daneshouse, just after 8am following a tip-off, according to the officer leading the inquiry, Det Sgt Nikki Bithell.
The force helicopter and the constabulary’s major inquiries team, were also used in the hunt for Taylor, who comes from the Chapeltown area of Leeds.
Police in North Yorkshire and Northumbria were also alerted as Taylor was known to have links with Skipton and Teeside.
A Lancashire Police spokesman said: “His arrest came as a direct result of the appeal and we want to thank everyone who called in.
"We had a good response from the public.”
Police had issued CCTV footage of Laing Taylor using the post office in Hargreaves Street, Burnley, on Tuesday to withdraw benefits, and a front-page appeal was run in the Lancashire Telegraph yesterday.
A West Yorkshire Police spokesman confirmed that the 47-year-old man arrested would be returned to Leeds for questioning.
The alleged rape was said to have taken place off Viaduct Street, Armley.
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