New British Glory
24-05-2005, 01:18
BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4389945.stm)
Pellet gun teacher sent to prison
A special needs teacher who fired a pellet gun at youths she claimed had vandalised her house has been jailed for six months.
Linda Walker, 48, was "ranting and raving like a lunatic" when she fired the gun, a court had heard.
Walker, of Hollyhouse Drive, Urmston, Gtr Manchester, was convicted of affray and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear or violence.
She said she was under stress at the time of the incident on 14 August 2004.
Walker claimed a campaign of vandalism by "yobbos" had driven her to fire the gun at the feet of a gang of teenagers she confronted near her home.
The teacher of children with behavioural difficulties at New Park School, Salford, had kept the gun in her underwear drawer for four months since her she was burgled.
She had also received nuisance phone calls abusing her 17-year-old son James while her other son Craig's car had been vandalised.
Fish had been stolen from her pond and her garden ornaments were thrown over a wall, her trial heard.
The final straw came when a washing-up liquid bottle full of water was emptied over her son's car, she said.
She went outside to confront the youths and, in a phone call to police, said: "I'm going over to that field over the road, I've got an air rifle and a pistol and I'm going to shoot the vandals that come around here."
Walker fired the pistol at the road near the feet of Robert McKiernan, 18.
Walker was sentenced at Manchester's Minshull St Crown Court on Tuesday to six months for possessing the firearm and one month for affray. The sentences will run concurrently.
Her 56-year-old partner, John Cavanagh, was cleared of affray last month.
Walker's defence barrister, Farrhat Ashad, said she admitted she had acted in a "very unfortunate" manner but had been under stress through work at the time.
"She thought her family, which was supposed to be safe, was being attacked," she added.
Her employer, Salford City Council, said she was suspended from her teaching job and would now face disciplinary action.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said there was no "particular problem" with anti-social behaviour in the Urmston area and insisted there was "no evidence" to suggest the Walkers had been targeted for abuse by youths.
"While we support homeowners protecting themselves in line with the recent ACPO and CPS guidelines, Mrs Walker overstepped the line and attacked a group in an unprovoked, disproportionate manner," said Det Sgt Frank Hayley, of Trafford CID.
"The use of a firearm was an extreme reaction and Greater Manchester Police will not tolerate the use of such a weapon on the street, irrespective of the offender's justification
Now this is an old case in Britain now but I feel it is necessary to look at it for the benefit of those ouside of Britain. She has been released from prison now (the judge reduced her sentence) but only have a hunger strike and huge press campaigns for her release. However Mrs. Walker has lost her job as a special needs teacher.
It is a sad day for justice when a woman such as Mrs. Walker is the one sent to prison while the yobs who terrorised her and her family walk free. Free so that when she goes back to her home, they know that they can terrorise her with the full support of the law behind them, knowing that the family whom they persecute cannot raise a finger against them.
It is a sad day for the police force when they cannot go out to relieve a law abiding family from the siege of yobbery but can dispatch a full team when a citizen finally breaks down. The fact that the citizen broke down is partly because of the police's ineffective, incompetenent and inactive handling of the situation.
It is a sad day for the country when the politically correct brigade hold so much sway that they can dismiss a special needs teacher (of whom there is a dire shortage) because they refuse to take a campaign of terrorism lying down. A teacher whose career has been ruined (along the lives of the children who need her help) because she fired an air pellet into the air to scare off the delinquents against whom the police would raise not one finger.
So watch out law abiding people of Britain. The law now fights for the muggers, the theives and the chavs. After all the human rights of the criminal matter far more than the human rights of victims, who are denied the right even to defend themselves from the abuse that is hurled at them by Britain's out of control yob culture.
Pellet gun teacher sent to prison
A special needs teacher who fired a pellet gun at youths she claimed had vandalised her house has been jailed for six months.
Linda Walker, 48, was "ranting and raving like a lunatic" when she fired the gun, a court had heard.
Walker, of Hollyhouse Drive, Urmston, Gtr Manchester, was convicted of affray and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear or violence.
She said she was under stress at the time of the incident on 14 August 2004.
Walker claimed a campaign of vandalism by "yobbos" had driven her to fire the gun at the feet of a gang of teenagers she confronted near her home.
The teacher of children with behavioural difficulties at New Park School, Salford, had kept the gun in her underwear drawer for four months since her she was burgled.
She had also received nuisance phone calls abusing her 17-year-old son James while her other son Craig's car had been vandalised.
Fish had been stolen from her pond and her garden ornaments were thrown over a wall, her trial heard.
The final straw came when a washing-up liquid bottle full of water was emptied over her son's car, she said.
She went outside to confront the youths and, in a phone call to police, said: "I'm going over to that field over the road, I've got an air rifle and a pistol and I'm going to shoot the vandals that come around here."
Walker fired the pistol at the road near the feet of Robert McKiernan, 18.
Walker was sentenced at Manchester's Minshull St Crown Court on Tuesday to six months for possessing the firearm and one month for affray. The sentences will run concurrently.
Her 56-year-old partner, John Cavanagh, was cleared of affray last month.
Walker's defence barrister, Farrhat Ashad, said she admitted she had acted in a "very unfortunate" manner but had been under stress through work at the time.
"She thought her family, which was supposed to be safe, was being attacked," she added.
Her employer, Salford City Council, said she was suspended from her teaching job and would now face disciplinary action.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said there was no "particular problem" with anti-social behaviour in the Urmston area and insisted there was "no evidence" to suggest the Walkers had been targeted for abuse by youths.
"While we support homeowners protecting themselves in line with the recent ACPO and CPS guidelines, Mrs Walker overstepped the line and attacked a group in an unprovoked, disproportionate manner," said Det Sgt Frank Hayley, of Trafford CID.
"The use of a firearm was an extreme reaction and Greater Manchester Police will not tolerate the use of such a weapon on the street, irrespective of the offender's justification
Now this is an old case in Britain now but I feel it is necessary to look at it for the benefit of those ouside of Britain. She has been released from prison now (the judge reduced her sentence) but only have a hunger strike and huge press campaigns for her release. However Mrs. Walker has lost her job as a special needs teacher.
It is a sad day for justice when a woman such as Mrs. Walker is the one sent to prison while the yobs who terrorised her and her family walk free. Free so that when she goes back to her home, they know that they can terrorise her with the full support of the law behind them, knowing that the family whom they persecute cannot raise a finger against them.
It is a sad day for the police force when they cannot go out to relieve a law abiding family from the siege of yobbery but can dispatch a full team when a citizen finally breaks down. The fact that the citizen broke down is partly because of the police's ineffective, incompetenent and inactive handling of the situation.
It is a sad day for the country when the politically correct brigade hold so much sway that they can dismiss a special needs teacher (of whom there is a dire shortage) because they refuse to take a campaign of terrorism lying down. A teacher whose career has been ruined (along the lives of the children who need her help) because she fired an air pellet into the air to scare off the delinquents against whom the police would raise not one finger.
So watch out law abiding people of Britain. The law now fights for the muggers, the theives and the chavs. After all the human rights of the criminal matter far more than the human rights of victims, who are denied the right even to defend themselves from the abuse that is hurled at them by Britain's out of control yob culture.