A KIDNAPPER who grabbed a woman as she walked to work in the dark and forced her to had a cigarette with him has been warned he faces a lengthy jail sentence.

Kyle Williams was caught after his DNA was recovered from a discarded cigarette butt he had dropped in Ashlor Street, Bury, following the night time attack.

Williams, aged 24, of Pembroke Drive, Bury, has admitted kidnapping the woman in the early hours of December 21 last year and robbery.

But a jury at Bolton Crown Court found him not guilty of committing an offence with intent to commit a sexual offence.

During the trial Colin Buckle, prosecuting, told how the hotel employee was walking along Manchester Road at 4.45am intending to catch a bus to work when she was grabbed from behind by Williams.

The terrified woman was punched in the face and dragged several yards by her hair down Ashlor Street, a town centre side street off Manchester Road.

During the scuffle the woman dropped her bag and was screaming until Williams overpowered her.

The prosecution alleged that he told her she had to have sex with him, but he denied this in court.

After demanding that she stop screaming, Williams insisted that his victim should have a cigarette with him.

He repeated his demand after she initially refused and they smoked for five minutes until a police car passed.

Spooked, he grabbed her bag and phone and ran off.

The frightened woman then walked to her boyfriend's workplace, where he was working a night shift and police were called.

Officers managed to recover CCTV footage of the kidnap from a nearby business and found the cigarette Williams had been smoking, which gave them his DNA.

At the end of the trial Recorder Ahmed Nadim remanded Williams in custody to allow for pre-sentence reports to be prepared.

He will be sentenced for the kidnap and robbery offences on July 15.

But Recorder Nadim warned him: "There is only one option - to pass on you a substantial custodial sentence."