Teacher who fired air gun at 'vandals' is jailed for six months

A teacher who opened fire on a teenager with a pellet gun after acts of vandalism against her family has been jailed.

A teacher who opened fire on a teenager with a pellet gun after acts of vandalism against her family has been jailed.

Linda Walker, 48, who teaches children with behavioural problems, kept one gun in her underwear drawer for four months after her shed was burgled. In the incident, she also carried her son's air rifle.

In August last year a confrontation with a gang of youths drove her to fire the weapon at the pavement near one teenager's feet.

Walker was found guilty of affray and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence after a week-long trial at Manchester Crown Court last month.

Yesterday the teacher was sentenced to six months in jail for possessing the firearm and one month in jail for affray. She is likely to serve half of the sentence with the rest of the term suspended.

Walker showed little emotion as her sentence was read out at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court.

Her 56-year-old partner John Cavanagh, who was cleared of affray last month, showed no emotion either.

The incident occurred early on 14 August near Walker's home in Urmston, Greater Manchester, which she shares with Cavanagh and her twin sons.

At her trial, the court was told she had been receiving nuisance phone calls calling her 17-year-old son James a "poof". The wing mirror of her other son Craig's car had also been broken off.

Walker told police her shed had been broken into, her garden ornaments had been thrown over the wall and fish had been stolen from her pond.

The final provocation came when Walker, who was head of year 11, in charge of food technology and careers co-ordinator at New Park School in Salford, saw that a washing-up liquid container full of water had been emptied over her son's car.

She went outside to confront a group of youths before returning to her home to fetch two guns. In a phone call to the police, she 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.

"I've got an air rifle and a pistol and I'm going to shoot them."

She told the court that she picked up her partner's Walther CP88 gas-powered pellet pistol, which he kept in her underwear drawer, and an air rifle belonging to her teenage son.

Walker left the house to confront the youths again, pointed the pistol at the feet of 18-year-old Robert McKiernan and then fired it at the road.

Walker told police: "I feel totally, totally distressed after all these things that have been happening. I know you do your best, but the law is on the side of the yobbos - these criminals, not the victim." Her barrister, Farrhat Arshad, told the court: "She thought her family, which was supposed to be safe, was being attacked."

Sentencing Walker, Recorder Louis Browne said that Walker knew what she was doing when she went back to get her guns. He said that the offences were "serious" and that her response to the incident had been "wholly disproportionate".

He said: "You assumed that these individuals were likely to be the same individuals who had caused the vandalism to your property. Both the weapons were capable of causing lethal injury."

Mr Cavanagh, a college lecturer in Salford, left the court refusing to comment on his partner's sentence.

A spokesman for Salford City Council said yesterday: "Linda Walker was suspended from her teaching post pending this police investigation and court action.

He added: "Now legal proceedings are ended, any formal disciplinary action can also be concluded. This will be completed as quickly as possible."