A pensioner who threatened a group of Scouts with a claw hammer as they climbed trees on land next to her garden was given a conditional discharge after being unanimously convicted by a jury at Northampton Crown Court.

Beryl Welch, aged 61, denied making violent threats to four members of the 1st Newton Longville Scout Group, aged between 11 and 13, as they played on scouting land off Stratford Road, Cosgrove last February.

She was charged with affray, of which she was yesterday acquitted, but was found guilty of a lesser offence of threatening behaviour.

However, Judge Charles Wide QC criticised the Crown Prosecution Service's decision to prosecute the affray charge and sentenced her to a 12-month conditional discharge.

However, he said he would not order any costs to be paid due to the CPS's decision to over-charge.

He said: "You plainly have quite a low flash point. The jury did not see that, but I did, noisily shouting from the dock."

Passing sentence, he added: "I am quite satisfied you and your husband, as I saw you both give evidence, have developed something of an obsession with what was happening on the ground next to your house, that it was being inappropriately used and that the people coming there were criminals and matters of that kind.

"The events of February 23 last year were a culmination of what was boiling over for some time. I am satisfied you acted completely out of character and in a way I suspect you now regret.

"This should never have been charged as an affray and the case should have been dealt with at the magistrates' court on the charge the jury have now convicted you. Nonetheless, this was a wrong thing you did and whatever your feelings, just or not, this was wrong and I suspect you know that.

"I am told there's been no further trouble for a year now and the prosecution do not apply for an anti-social behaviour order. It seems that the prosecution and police's view is that there is no continued risk of further incidents. If you stay clear of trouble, this is the last you will hear of it."

Welch, of Stratford Road, Cosgrove repeatedly declined to accept a bind over prior to trial.