A MAN has been arrested on suspicion of the brutal murder of the daughter of former Bolton judge Brian McGrath.

Rachel McGrath's throat was cut in a frenzied knife attack as she waited for her boyfriend outside a pub in Bramhall, Stockport, on Friday.

The man, aged 27, was also being questioned over the abduction of a 17-year-old girl, said a Greater Manchester Police spokesman.

Miss McGrath, aged 27, a Halifax Building Society assistant manager, died almost instantly from multiple stab wounds after she arrived at the Victoria Tavern to pick up her boyfriend, Kevin Forster, 25.

Rachel's father Brian McGrath, 55, is a district judge based in Manchester and has served in the family division in Bolton and Bury.

He was appointed a district judge in 1994 and served in Bolton before being based permanently at Manchester. Early yesterday a man was arrested in Caernarfon, North Wales, in connection with the kidnapping of the 17-year-old girl in Stockport.

The police spokesman said: "In connection with Rachel's murder, a 27-year-old local man is in custody in Stockport suspected of this offence. He is also suspected of the abduction of a 17-year-old girl from Stockport who was taken to Caernarfon, where she escaped unharmed.

"The man was unknown to either of the girls before these two incidents."

The man was arrested in Bangor and taken to Stockport late last night. It is understood the arrest came after the girl dashed from a man's car.

No details are known about the girl involved, who is understood to come from the Stockport area.

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