IT'S EVERY parent's worst nightmare - and it has happened again.

A stranger put his arm around a nine-year-old boy, innocently playing in the street, and led him away.

Had it not been for sharp-eyed neighbours, young Scott Walker could today have been just another tragic crime statistic.

His horrified mum, Allison Dodd, decided to speak to The Press to warn other parents of the danger.

She said: "You read about child abductors in the papers and see them on TV, but you never think it can happen to your own family.

"But it can. And it does. I live for my children. If something happened to them, my life would fall apart."

At 4pm on Tuesday, Scott and his friends were kicking a ball around the street outside his house in Lindley Road, Clifton Moor - a peaceful, everyday scene.

Allison was watching from the kitchen window as she cooked dinner. She turned away for a matter of minutes, and suddenly a neighbour was knocking on her door.

Allison, 34, said: "My friend asked me if I had any relatives round, because there was a man in the street with Scott."

Allison saw a dark-haired man with his arm around her son, leading him away. Fearing the worst, she ran after him and confronted him.

She said: "It was horrific, like living my worst

nightmare. I didn't know whether to scream at him or hit him. Three or four other adults came with me to see what was happening.

"He just said 'me no understand' in bad English, and sloped off."

Scott, a pupil at Lakeside Primary School, later told his mum the man had asked him, in perfectly clear English, to show him the way to a nearby lake, because he was lost.

The man is described as Asian or Turkish, with short, dark hair, aged about 30 years old. He was wearing a dark pair of trousers, a blue-grey jacket and a rucksack on his back, and was

carrying some sort of leaflet.

Allison, a single mum-of-two, said: "The feeling of horror is indescribable.

"I moved here from Manchester three years ago, and I felt happy and safe. It will be a long time before I feel like that again."

Allison has already warned Scott's school and other parents living nearby.

Lakeside Primary School head teacher Ros Latham said: "Everyone at school was obviously very shocked about this incident.

"We break up for the school half-term holiday today, and I will be writing to parents alerting them about it so they can be mindful, particularly with the holiday upon us."

Police were due to speak to Scott about the incident. A force spokesman said: "It seems a stranger has spoken to this young boy. What he said and why he said it, we don't know at this stage.

"In the current climate, strangers speaking to children raises concerns, and given the circumstances, it is probably as well that it does."

Updated: 16:13 Thursday, May 25, 2006