Teacher gun case youth sentenced

Nicholas Viollet targeted a couple at their home

A youth at the centre of the case involving jailed teacher Linda Walker in Greater Manchester has been given custody for harassing a young couple.

Nicholas Viollet, 17, threw a brick through the window of their car and punched and threatened one of them, Trafford Youth Court heard.

On Tuesday Viollet was sent to a young offenders' institute for eight months.

The confrontation with Mrs Walker led to her being jailed in March for firing a gun near a group of youths.

She was jailed and lost her £30,000-a-year job after being convicted of affray and possessing a firearm with intent to cause fear.

On Tuesday the court heard that Viollet, from Flixton, targeted householders, bricking their car, hurling abuse at them in the street and punching his victim in a campaign that lasted months.

Hurling abuse

The court was told that victims Daniel Brooks, 25, a medic and his girlfriend, Nicola Raw, who is partially deaf, had been targeted at their home in Flixton.

Viollet threw a brick through the window of Ms Raw's car on 10 December last year and on Christmas Eve attacked and punched her boyfriend as he visited local shops.

Linda Walker was jailed after firing towards a group of youths

In February this year he arrived outside their house and began hurling abuse. Mr Brooks called police and began filming Viollet on his camcorder.

The court was shown the 10-minute video of the teenager shouting a torrent of bad language and abuse before hurling a milk bottle at the upstairs window.

Stephen Rodgers, mitigating, said Viollet, who has previous convictions for shoplifting, had been "led astray" by others after leaving his parents' home to live with other people.

He was now back in the "bosom of his family" and was getting help for his drink problem from his youth offending officer and his drink and drugs counsellor.

Weeks earlier he had been accused of being one of the youths who had plagued special needs teacher Mrs Walker's family home in Urmston.

Mrs Walker, 48, eventually grabbed an air pistol and fired it at the pavement when confronting the gang.