COLD case detectives investigating the rape and murder of a schoolgirl in 1946 are looking at potential links to another unsolved child sex killing which happened 10 days later in Dartford.

Welsh police and Kent police forces have liaised over the deaths of 12-year-old Muriel Drinkwater, who was killed on June 27 1946, and 11-year-old Sheila Martin, who died on July 7 the same year.

Both children were murdered in woodlands less than half-a-mile from their homes.

Muriel was beaten and raped before being shot by an attacker as she walked home through forestry land close to the village of Penllergaer, near Swansea.

And 10 days later, Sheila was raped and strangled with her own white hair ribbon in Sun Hill Wood near her home in Fawkham Green, Dartford.

Although the murders happened hundreds of miles apart there were close links between the two areas in the 1940s, with many Welsh miners having moved to Kent to work in the county's collieries.

And on the day of Sheila's murder, there was also a large crowd of visitors at Brands Hatch, with around 9,000 people attending a grass track speedway meeting and many camping in local fields and woods.

The motor racing venue was so close to the murder scene that Chief Inspector Robert Fabian, who was sent from Scotland Yard to investigate the killing, set up his headquarters in the Brands Hatch pavilion.

The investigation into Muriel’s death is considered to be the country’s coldest case as detective and forensic scientists found the clothing the schoolgirl was wearing on the day she died and a near-complete DNA profile of the killer was established.

The killer would now be in his 80s.

Kent police have confirmed they have provided the case file to Welsh Police who are looking at the case to see if there are any possible links with the murder of Sheila Martin.

However, Kent police are not reinvestigating the Sheila Martin murder at present.