Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: bustr on April 04, 2005, 12:54:59 PM
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From the Manchester Evening News
Seems the youths she shot at have criminal records for exactly what she accused them of....go figure....:rolleyes:
Family's fury after gun mum is jailed
THE family of an Urmston teacher jailed for firing an air-gun near a yob outside her home say they had been plagued by thugs for two years.
Linda Walker, who used the pellet gun after youths launched a campaign of vandalism against her family, was jailed for three months yesterday at Manchester Crown Court.
But speaking to the M.E.N., her son Craig revealed the family had complained to police 15 times during a campaign of terror by local yobs. The police say they only received three complaints.
Craig, a 17-year-old student nurse said his mum had been driven to take the law into her own hands after police failed to tackle the thugs.
"All the time we have rung about things they have never even turned up. They are supposed to be there and protect you when you are in danger and you ring them up and they don't come and it starts getting to you.
"Mum hadn't gone out there to hurt anyone she was just fed up of our house getting vandalised and she wanted to defend her property."
Last night, the Manchester Evening received dozens of calls and messages on our website in support of Mrs Walker.
Norman Brennan, a spokesman for the Victims of Crime Trust, said the conviction was "a sad day for the justice system".
He said: "What does is it say when a teacher who has got no convictions and is an upstanding member of the community is driven into taking the law into her hands? I would say that the justice system failed her and the police failed her because they didn't respond to the problems that were taking place."
The special needs teacher was arrested after confronting a gang of youths outside her home on Hollyhouse Drive in August last year and firing the pistol at the pavement near one teenager's feet.
The teacher kept the pellet gun to clear squirrels from her garden.
Mrs Walker, 48, who works at New Park School in Salford, was found guilty of affray and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
Since 2003, the family say they have had fish stolen from a pond in their back garden, garden ornaments vandalised, their front door kicked, and their shed broken into on two separate occasions.
The family car was broken into on Christmas Day and the wing mirrors and windscreen on Craig's car were smashed in a separate incident.
One of the youths who appeared during the court case, Robert McKiernan, 18, had previous convictions for burglary, theft and criminal damage while another had been convicted of shoplifting the day before the shooting.
Greater Manchester Police said they only had records of three recent call-outs by the Walker family.
A spokeswoman said: "In 2004 we received three complaints from that address which we investigated. It may be that she has reported it to a passing officer and not officially logged it with us."
The family are expecting to appeal the conviction.
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I'd a got a bigger gun.
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A pellet gun? Firearms offences? Bah, what is this country coming to.
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Whats a yob ?
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By the very definition of a "firearm" she didnt use one. A pellet gun is an "airgun", not a "firearm".
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Yob is short for "Yobbo".
Basically a thug.
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Originally posted by bustr
From the Manchester Evening News
Greater Manchester Police said they only had records of three recent call-outs by the Walker family.
A spokeswoman said: "In 2004 we received three complaints from that address which we investigated. It may be that she has reported it to a passing officer and not officially logged it with us."
The family are expecting to appeal the conviction.
Only 3 calls on the records? Isnt that enough?
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If you go back in the last 2 years I have read refrences to some english police groups having to fill out so much paper work that they don't have alot of time to address calls other than the most sevier. Ive read articles that alleges one of the top english cops put out a directive stating that petty crime, burglery and other low level crime will not be responded to because of the work load.
But you read articles all the time that if you pull out a toy pistol, or look like you have a gun looking thingy in your hand, they will send up to 30 rapid response force cops with machine guns in minutes. Guess she should have placed the pellet gun on the sidewalk by "accident" :) and waited behind the draps till the yobos came by and picked it up. That would have been all the police would have wanted to hear......................... .....:rolleyes: