A MAN was due to appear in court today charged with abduction and a serious sexual assault after a teenage girl went missing from her home for two days.

The 14-year-old girl, who disappeared from her home in Blackburn on Monday, was found in the company of a Blackburn man in Cardiff on Wednesday.

Sacha Rene Edwards, 27, was due to appear before magistrates in Blackburn today.

Details of the missing girl were only released yesterday.

A police spokesman said: "There were genuine operational reasons why officers didn't ask for help in appealing for information.

"There was a genuine risk that if we had gone public if might have frightened the man off."