A PRESTONPANS man left two children screaming for help in a searing hot car.

Andrew Yorkston parked his vehicle in a lay-by near to Drummohr Holiday Park and left the two youngsters in the back seat of the locked car for about 30 minutes on a hot summer's day.

The six-year-old girl and two-year-old boy were trapped in the locked vehicle and were only rescued after passers-by heard the traumatised girl banging on the car windows and screaming: “Help, save us.”

The worried passers-by contacted the police and waited by the car to calm the kids before Yorkston eventually appeared, claiming he had “only been [away] five minutes” and had been relieving himself.

The 27-year-old then drove away from the lay-by, leaving the police to launch a hunt for him and the two children.

On Tuesday, Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard that Yorkston was in charge of the children when he was taking them to a nearby McDonald's and stopped off unexpectedly at the lay-by near to Prestonpans on August 16 last year.

Fiscal depute Mark Keane told the court that the two-year-old boy and the six-year-old girl were spotted locked in the car at about 5.30pm.

Mr Keane said: “Witnesses were out for a walk and they observed a stationary car in the lay-by and saw two children within the car who were very distressed.

“The six-year-old was shouting: ‘Help, save us.’

The girl pointed to an opening in the trees and told the passers-by that the man looking after her was down there, the court heard.

The fiscal added that “the car was locked and the windows were fully up” and it was “a hot day”.

“The witnesses became concerned about the children’s welfare and decided to phone the police and stay with the car for about 25 minutes.”

Solicitor Lesley Cunningham, defending, said that Yorkston, of North Grange Avenue, had stopped for a toilet break and his wife had been left “suitably unimpressed” by his actions.

Ms Cunningham said that her client had “an underlying drug problem” at the time of the incident which was “now resolved”.

The solicitor added: “Mr Yorkston was taking the children to a McDonald's and stopped by the side of the road for the toilet. He admits now this was foolish in the extreme.

“Fortunately there was no harm down to the children.”

Sheriff Adrian Cottam deferred sentence to next month.

Yorkston admitted to being responsible for two children and wilfully abandoning them by leaving them alone within a locked vehicle while windows were fully closed in hot weather conditions at a lay-by on the B1361 near to Prestonpans on August 16 last year.