POLICE investigating the murder of a schoolgirl 27 years ago are following new leads as a result of a television appeal.

Lesley Molseed, aged 11, was stabbed 12 times and sexually assaulted after leaving her Rochdale home on Sunday, October 5, 1975, on a shopping errand for her mother.

Her body was discovered three days later on open moorland in Ripponden, West Yorkshire.

Police said they had compiled a list of 90 new suspects, thanks to a "huge and encouraging" response to an appeal on BBC's Crimewatch UK in February.

In the appeal, police had said they were now in a position to quickly eliminate people from their inquiries using a DNA profile they believe was left at the scene by the killer.

Detectives received more than 250 calls and messages as a result of the appeal, including the names of a number of known suspects and those of some men police have since been able to rule out.

But also among the information received were the names of 90 new suspects, a spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said yesterday.

Officers were now working to trace those men in an attempt to obtai DNA samples.

The investigation was reopened in 1992 after Stefan Kizsko, a tax clerk from Rochdale who had been convicted of Lesley's murder, was released from prison on appeal. He died shortly afterwards.

In 1999, West Yorkshire Police approached the forensic science service to review the case and any material left from the original inquiry.