YOUNGSTERS skateboarding on a private car park fled in terror when confronted by an angry man brandishing a knife, a court was told yesterday.

Harrogate magistrates heard how Philip Turner ran from his flat waving a kitchen knife and shouting at the boys - one aged 12 the other two 13 - to go away.

They ran from the site at the back of Albert Place, Harrogate, and called the police, said Jacqui Thomas, prosecuting, yesterday.

Turner, 49, admitted possession of an offensive weapon and using threatening behaviour. Stuart Berry, defending, said Turner, whose marriage had broken down and whose painting and decorating business had failed, lived in a flat in Albert Place, in a block set aside for people in vulnerable circumstances.

There had been problems with damage, litter, noise nuisance and other anti-social behaviour, which Turner had reported to his landlords.

When he saw the boys throwing stones first on to wasteland and then at a fence, he was provoked into a reaction.

Mr Berry said Turner accepted he must have cut a frightening figure when he appeared with a knife in his hand.

After Turner told the court he had no intention of using the knife, presiding magistrate Nancy Scruton conditionally discharged him for a year and ordered payment of £60 costs.

She said: ''It must have been extremely frightening when you appeared brandishing a kitchen knife.'