A French baker accused of stabbing a 14-year-old girl up to 30 times in a Lancashire park appeared in court today.

Jessica Knight was still lying critically ill at the Royal Manchester Children's hospital during the hearing after she underwent five hours of emergency surgery.

Kristoffer Beddar, 21, who is believed to have moved from Paris to Chorley in May last year, has been charged with the attempted murder of the school girl on Monday evening.

He was remanded in custody by Chorley Magistrates court this morning and will next appear at Preston Crown Court on February 4.

The court was told that Mr Beddar, who lives in Adlington, Chorley with members of his English family, had given himself up to the police. He was accompanied by an interpreter during the 10-minute hearing but only spoke to confirm his name, address, and that he understood the allegation.

Police are still appealing for information about the attack and have yet to trace the weapon used to stab Jessica.

She was found covered in blood by a cyclist who heard her screams in Astley Park, Astley Village around 5.15pm on Monday.

Alan Walmsley, her grandfather, said that when he arrived to see Jessica in hospital he could barely recognise her because of the severity of the injuries.

It is believed that she was ambushed in the dark as she took a shortcut along a path that cuts through undergrowth on the edge of Astley Village, in Chorley, Lancashire.

CCTV footage shows her standing outside a row of shops in the village a few minutes before her badly inured body was discovered.

Detective Superintendent Steve Brunskill, from Lancashire Constabulary’s major investigation team, who is leading the inquiry said: “This is a particularly nasty, frenzied attack on a defenceless girl. We do not know if she was targeted or if it is a random attack.”

Jessica is thought to have lived in the nearby village of Euxton with her parents, who raised the alarm at around 10pm on Monday night.

She was found fully clothed and in her fur-lined parka jacket by a passing cyclist. Simon Corlson, 52, a project manager who works in Astley said he was amazed that she was still conscious.

“At first I thought she had fallen off her bicycle because I could see one lying at the side of the path, but the man helping her said it was his. A policeman told me later that she had been stabbed 30 times but I saw only two of the wounds – one on her neck and the other on her cheek,” he said.

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