THE prosecution has closed its case in the trial of the man accused of murdering 11-year-old Rochdale girl Lesley Molseed, who was found stabbed to death on remote moorland at Ripponden more than 30 years ago.

Ronald Castree, 54, of Shaw, Oldham, is on trial at Bradford Crown Court.

A jury has heard how Lesley went missing from her home in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, as she was running an errand for her mother on October 5, 1975. Her body was found three days later on the West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester border, on moors near to the A672 Oldham to Ripponden road.

She had been stabbed 12 times during a “frenzied attack”, the jury has heard.

The court has already heard how an innocent man – tax clerk Stefan Kiszko – was wrongly convicted of Lesley’s murder and spent 16 years in prison.

After Mr Kiszko’s release scientists built up a DNA profile of whoever left semen at the crime scene.

The court has been told how a DNA sample taken from Castree when he was arrested on an unrelated matter in 2005 was a direct match.

Yesterday the jury was given a list of agreed facts about evidence in the case, including admissions that Castree’s DNA was correctly recovered for use by forensic scientists in 2005.

Castree denies the murder of Lesley Molseed.