A pensioner arrested for drink driving has been jailed for nine years after a routine DNA sample linked him to the kidnap and sex assault of a young girl more than 15 years ago.

Arnold Baxter, 72, a sexual predator, snatched a six-year-old girl as she played outside her home in a quiet Staffordshire village in March 2001.

Driving a car with false number plates he then sexually assaulted her before dumping her in a nearby village and returning to his home 50 miles away in Rugby, Warwickshire.

The retired office maintenance manager thought he had got away with his crime until the day after his 72nd birthday when he was arrested on suspicion of drink driving.

As part of the routine arrest process police took his fingerprints and a DNA sample and checked it against the national database.