A HOLIDAYMAKER cut his way into the US surveillance base at Menwith Hill, in North Yorkshire, sparking a full-scale security alert, a court heard yesterday.

He later phoned Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch to tell officers he had intended to plant a bomb, magistrates heard.

Steven John Evans rented a cottage at nearby Darley with his wife and two friends for a week.

On April 2, he walked to the base and made more than 30 cuts in the perimeter fence, Peter Scott, prosecuting, told Harrogate magistrates.

When his actions triggered an alarm, he spotted torches carried by Ministry of Defence police and hid from them until it was safe to make off.

Mr Scott said Evans, 50, and without previous convictions, had struck during the war with Iraq amid threats, alerts and scares across the country.

Four days later, after Evans had returned to his home in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, anti-terrorist police received an anonymous phone call - made at 11.30pm, about the same time as the Menwith Hill incident - which was traced to a public telephone in Slough.

The caller admitted responsibility for the damage to Menwith Hill and claimed an intention to enter the base to plant explosives.

Police later searched Evans, who was found to be in possession of a blank-firing 8mm handgun with a cartridge in the chamber.

Evans pleaded guilty to giving false information and criminal damage, and was sent for sentence at Leeds Crown Court on June 10.

Caroline McAdam, in mitigation, said he had not intended any sabotage and had acted in an implausible and bizarre way.