A MENTAL patient terrified Bury schoolchildren with a bogus shotgun just months after the massacre at Dunblane.

Simon Kenneth Rawcliffe thought he was protecting three young girls from people like the Dunblane killer Thomas Hamilton as he shouted and waved the pretend weapon at them yards from the gate of Christ Church County Primary School, Walshaw.

The youngsters fled, screaming while Rawcliffe walked off carrying the look-alike weapon made from a scaffold tube and a wooden shotgun stock.

At Manchester Crown Court on Monday, April 7, Judge Timothy Mort ordered Rawcliffe (24) to be detained at a psychiatric hospital without time limit.

Judge Mort said: "It is quite clear that at the time this was committed you weren't very well. And it is clear also that, fortunately, you didn't have a gun, you had a part of one and you had a scaffold tube."

The court had earlier heard how Rawcliffe, of Winchester Way, Bolton, was spotted carrying what appeared to be a gun on July 1 last year.

Mr Adrian Wallace, prosecuting told the court that Rawcliffe was arrested on Lowercroft Road, Walshaw, shortly after the incident at the school.

He said a passer-by alerted police after spotting Rawcliffe acting in a bizarre way. Rawcliffe gave himself up and lay the phoney gun on the ground when challenged by a police officer who knew his name.

Mr Wallace said: "At that time in July, Dunblane was in the news and the police quite naturally reacted in the right way."

Mr Fred Parkinson, mitigating said Rawcliffe had been ill at the time, and was aware of the Dunblane incident.

He said: "What he was doing, in his own mind, was going round protecting children from people who would do things like that."

Rawcliffe admitted possessing an imitation fire arm and causing an affray.

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