A man has spoken of how he found a six-year-old girl naked and screaming in the street, after she was snatched from her bath and sexually assaulted.
Geoff Brown of Willington Quay, North Tyneside, said the experience had left him and his wife devastated.
"How anybody can put a child through this is absolutely horrific," he said.
Northumbria detectives hunting the middle-aged intruder say they are to begin questioning all known paedophiles in the area.
Mr Brown said: "You read about these attacks in the paper and you see it on the news, and when it happens on your doorstep it just brings home how terrible it is.
"I was absolutely devastated and my wife's the same."
Police are hunting a man who was wearing dark clothes and gloves who took the child from a ground floor bathroom on Tuesday evening.
She was dumped naked in an alleyway in Willington Quay a short time later.
Police have urged the man responsible to give himself up.
A distraught Mr Brown said: "I initially heard a little girl screaming and I wasn't sure where it was coming from, so I looked out of the back door and saw something in the back lane.
"I rushed out and the little girl was standing there completely naked.
"You just don't know what goes through your mind. I just didn't understand what was going on. I just thought 'what the hell?'.
"I ran over and asked the little girl what had happened and she said she had been taken from her bath.
"I couldn't understand what had happened, so I just picked her up in my arms and brought her in the house."
House to house inquiries have been carried out
Det Ch Insp Jim Napier, who is leading the hunt said: "From the girl's account, somebody has been brazen enough to enter her house, take her away undressed and then assaulted her in a manner which is clearly sexually motivated, and then leave her in this lane, in the dark, on her own.
"This man is clearly extremely dangerous as he was willing to take the risk of going into a house to take the girl.
"I would say to this individual, come forward now and get this off your chest before we find you."
He said the girl would spend Friday with her family to have a rest after hours of questioning by police.
Mr Napier also said police patrols in the area had been stepped up to try to make local residents feel safe.
Officers are also keen to confirm reports of a car being driven erratically with screeching brakes between 1900 and 1930 GMT on Tuesday.