A JAILED sex offender has been been found guilty of attacking a woman in Darwen.

George Heyes, 52, currently serving time in HMP Fulsutton, pleaded guilty to indecent assaults in Darwen and Bolton from the 1990s following an investigation from Greater Manchester Police's Cold Case Review Unit.

Yesterday Heyes was sentenced at Bolton Crown Court to seven years’ imprisonment for the Bolton offence and four-and-a-half years for an assault carried out in Darwen, to run concurrently.

In 1991, Heyes grabbed a 21-year-old woman on wasteland near Lomax Street, Darwen.

Telling her he had a knife, he forced her to perform a sex act on him.

The second offence happened eight years later in Little Lever, Bolton when he carried out a similar attack on a 14-year-old girl.

The new sentences will run consecutively to the life sentence he is already serving, meaning it will be three-and-a-half years before he will be able to apply for parole.

Detective Superintendent Martin Bottomley, from Greater Manchester Police's Cold Case Review Unit, said: "These women have had years of uncertainty, not knowing who attacked them or where that person lived.

"Going through an ordeal like this can have a huge impact on someone's life.”