School-threat thug in court
THE Salford school featured in the hit TV show Educating Greater Manchester was put on ‘complete lockdown’ after a man threatened to shoot the pupils in a row over cyber bullying.
Security was beefed up at Harrop Fold High, in Little Hulton, after window cleaner Gerald Hoskins, 34, threatened to get a gang of ‘20 lads’ and made ‘threats to shoot.’
As staff tried to placate him, Hoskins – who was unarmed – said: “I’ve seen you on the TV programme, I know what you are really like.”
He also stormed towards the school’s science block saying ‘where is this pupil?’ – before leaving when a senior teacher persuaded him to go.
Police later arrested Hoskins following last October’s confrontation at the school, which featured in the Channel 4 fly-on-the-wall documentary last year.
It emerged the father-of-two, himself a former pupil at Harrop Fold, became enraged after an unnamed relative was sent threatening Snapchat messages saying ‘your getting ******* banged out’ along with pictures of knives and guns.
At Manchester magistrates court he was found guilty of using threatening words to cause fear of unlawful violence and was sentenced to six weeks in jail, suspended for 12 months.
The trial was told the incident began at morning break-time after Hoskins decided to have it out with a pupil he suspected he was sending the Snapchat messages.
Deputy headteacher Jenny Benigno told the court: “There had been a fight between two pupils and I was in reception when I saw the gentleman walking down the path towards the school and the main foyer.
“I could see he was agitated and upset and, from the way his body language was, that he was wound up about something.
“He said something like ‘let me in, I need to get to that boy.’ I turned to the reception staff and asked them to call the police.
“He went towards the science windows instead of going down the path. He was saying ‘where is this pupil?’ and was talking about bringing some lads down from Salford to deal with it. “It was not nice, I was a bit worried about the safety of the school, the bell had gone for break and I could see students looking at what was going on.”
Luke Bateson, the school’s then facilities manager, said: “I did hear ‘I’ll give my Salford boys a ring and we will come down here and deal with it properly.’ He was quite loud and gesturing with his arm. I took that as a real threat. We had to keep the external premises on complete lockdown all day.”
Prosecutor Victoria Norman told the hearing: “Ms Benigno felt the police should be called because she felt that much fear for herself, the pupils and the staff. Remember, this was a school, it was the safety of the pupils and fellow staff.
“The threats were that real, that the school had to make a plan and take action. He said he was going to get 20 lads to the school to ‘deal with it properly’ and said if the boys want to play he would wait at the gates and have guns to shoot them.”
Giving evidence, Hoskins, said: “I was going to talk to the teachers about this bullying incident. I went up to the school building and felt annoyed, frustrated and angry. It’s been ongoing and nothing gets done.
“I wanted to sit down with teachers and parents and sort the issue. I was angry but I calmed down.
“I said ‘I’m sick to death, he’s the one getting these text messages saying he’s going to get stabbed, he’s going to get hit by a bat.
“I never said I would shoot the people involved. I didn’t say ‘I could bring some lads down from Salford’ or ‘I’ll give my Salford boys a ring and we will deal with it properly.’ When I attended at the school I didn’t attend to use violence or make them think violence would be used on them. I’m not a violent person – I saw a text message telling my relative was getting stabbed and beaten up.”
His lawyer, Lorna Wincote, said: “What was said and overheard was no more than a couple of comments from the defendant about getting boys down.
“He didn’t make threats to bring gangs down.
A probation report stated: “He’s very remorseful and apologetic for his behaviour.
“He expressed that he felt ashamed of his behaviour.”
Sentencing JP Lorraine Lighton told Hoskins: “The fact this took place in a school makes it very serious.”
Hoskins was also ordered to complete 150 hours unpaid work in conjunction with a 12-month community order. He also has to pay £815 in costs and surcharges.