A PENSIONER has been re-arrested more than 50 years after the brutal murder of a schoolgirl.

Fourteen-year-old Elsie Frost was pounced on from behind and stabbed in the head as she walked through a secluded railway tunnel near a canal towpath.

The investigation into her murder froze but was relaunched last year after investigating officers gathered new evidence of her tragic death.

A suspect, named locally as Peter Pickering, was arrested in Newbury in connection with young Elsie's death, but was released on police bail.

However, today, West Yorkshire Police announced a 79-year-old man, understood to be Peter Pickering, was rearrested and taken into custody.

The man will also be questioned about an unconnected rape case in the early 1970s.

A spokesman for West Yorkshire Police said: "Following continued enquiries into the murder of 14-year-old Elsie Frost who was discovered stabbed to death in Horbury, Wakefield, West Yorkshire on October 9 1965, West Yorkshire Police have today re-arrested a 79-year-old man on suspicion of her murder.

"He has also been arrested in connection with an unconnected offence of kidnap and rape which occurred in 1972."  

A major inquiry was launched after Elsie’s body was found at the bottom of a flight of steps by a dog walker in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, in October 1965.

The renewed police inquiry was triggered by a BBC Radio 4 investigation into the case.

When he was first arrested, Pickering was taken to a police station in the Thames Valley for questioning by West Yorkshire Police detectives.

In the wake of the fresh police appeal, Elsie’s brother, Colin Frost, spoke out about her family’s pain, saying that their parents, Edith and Arthur, had died “with a huge amount of guilt”.

Mr Frost said Elsie had been like a mother to him, adding: “She was just a sweet, sweet person. She was lovely.”

In 1966, Ian Bernard Spencer, then aged 33, was charged with her murder but cleared on the orders of the judge who tried the case.

Mr Frost told Radio 4’s World At One this week: “As a family we are very pleased. All we wanted was to be taken seriously.

“We were aware that mistakes were made in 1965, but we’ve been impressed with the commitment of West Yorkshire Police in the re-investigation, the number of officers involved, the number of agencies involved.”

At the time of the first arrest West Yorkshire Police spokesman Matthew Woodward, confirmed the man was arrested 'in the Newbury area' but declined to say whether the suspect had been living in Newbury at the time of his arrest.