A “MOB” formed by a group of neighbours accused a 56-year-old man of trying to abduct a young girl on an isolated road near Selby, a court has heard.

Unemployed vet David Wain was forced to the ground and had his car keys taken by neighbours while the girl’s mother made a frantic call to police on the evening of Thursday, September 12 last year, York Crown Court heard.

Father-of-three Wain, of Marsh Lane, Bolton Percy, denies attempted child abduction.

He is accused of stopping his car alongside a ten-year-old girl while she walked her dog alone on a rural lane, and telling her to get in the car.

Yesterday, on the trial’s second day, his defence barrister, Glenn Parsons, told the court Wain had only been asking for directions but was blockaded into the lane by two neighbours’ vehicles after the girl ran home.

Mr Parsons said: “A number of people gathered, all saying ‘you are a child abductor, a paedophile’. It descended into a mob.”

Wain told the jury he had “absolutely no interest” in underage children, and only asked the girl for directions as he could see no one else nearby.

He was stunned by what he was accused of.

He saidd: “I was absolutely flabbergasted. I couldn’t believe it.

“I didn’t know what was happening.”

He admitted drinking from a bottle of vodka in his car while he waited for police to arrive.

The jury heard a recording of the 999 call, when the girl’s mother and a neighbour were heard saying the man appeared drunk and was acting aggressively.

Yesterday, two neighbours gave evidence as well as the child’s mother and PC Neil Sorby, the first police officer on the scene, and Det Con Amanda Bostwick.

Prosecutor Michele Stuart-Lofthouse said Wain had had plenty of opportunities to stop and ask directions before he came across the girl and, in fact, knew the way he should have taken.

But he was lonely after the break-up of his marriage and had drunk vodka earlier for “dutch courage” before approaching the child – all of which Wain denied.

• The trial continues.