UPDATED: Couple speak of horror at hands of youths in Scarborough

During the hour-long ordeal, a group of teenage girls took a picture of the 65-year-old husband and told him they would be putting the pictures on the internet to say he was a paedophile.

The couple, from Selby, visiting on Tuesday to take advantage of the hot weather, and at around 4pm the husband was fishing at the end of the West Pier.

His wife, who asked for them not to be identified as they still fear what pictures the youths took, said: "As he was fishing there was a lot of teenage boys running past him and jumping off the end of the pier.

"The water was very shallow and my husband said to one of the boys that they should be careful as they could hurt themselves.

"They then just turned on us. They started shouting at us and some on bikes just came up to us and said 'you are not leaving this pier'.

"The girls that were with them were using the worst language I have ever heard.

"They were pointing at my husband and shouting 'paedophile' and they got their phones out saying 'smile paedophile, we're putting you on the internet you paedo'.

"We were terrified, they would not let us get back to our car. They kept yelling 'we don't want you here'.

"I rang the police and it was only on the third call, when i was hysterical, that they actually came.

"We were escorted back to our car but we were given no crime number, nothing was done about the youths.

"A guy who worked on the harbour stopped us and said it is now a regular problem.

"Is this the image people really want of Scarborough? We won't be coming back ever again I can tell you that."

Howver, a 15-year-old girl who claimed to have been there said it was not the youths which were at fault.

She said: "The man told some lads to stop jumping into the water and they just pointed out to him he was fishing next to a sign which said 'no fishing'.

"He then got his phone out and started filming the boys, so they started filming him back.

"I did hear someone call him a paedophile, which was wrong, but no-one stopped them from going to their car.

"The woman even called me fat at one point, she only called the police once her husband had put his phone away.

"They could have gone at any time, no-one was stopping them.

"They just got really angry when told they were fishing where they shouldn't."