FARNWORTH was a community living in fear after a spate of unsolved attacks on children stretching over decades.
From the 1940s onwards records show a string of sinister happenings in the area, centred around the district where police are now digging for Sheila Fox.
The list of unsolved attacks on innocent young children include:
August, 1944 -- Sheila Fox, aged six, is reported missing walking home from St James' Primary School.
April, 1945 -- Patricia McKeown, aged six, is stabbed in St James Street, Farnworth.
March 1948 -- Six-year-old Brenda Hulme is accosted by a man as she walks to St James' Primary School
April, 1948 -- Jack Queintin Smith, aged 11, is murdered and his nine-year-old friend David Lee stabbed.
December 1963 -- An 18-year-old girl is sexually assaulted in Fylde Street, Farnworth.
January 1971 -- A 14-year-old girl is assaulted in Macdonald Avenue, Farnworth, in a sex attack.
January 1971 -- A week later a 12-year-old girl is the victim of a vicious sex attack.
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