Drunken gunman jailed
5:29pm Friday 6th July 2007 in Your Town By Edward Chadwick
A GUNMAN who threatened police with a pistol during a drunken rampage has been jailed for two years.
Oliver Kettle, aged 25, ran amok with the blank-firing imitation Glock, firing four rounds into the air following a party.
He was eventually bundled to the ground by a police officer and arrested.
Kettle, a 25-year-old dental technician and father-of-one, of Greenmount Lane, Heaton, pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm at Bolton Crown Court.
Sentencing Kettle, Recorder John Shaw said: "The reason for your choice of action escapes me.
"You are a hard working individual and a good father but you threw all of that away in a few minutes of madness after drinking to excess.
"It could been much worse. If it weren't for the professionalism of those armed officers on the night, you may have been shot dead."
The court heard that police were called to Carl Street, off Halliwell Road, at 1am on Sunday March 11 after local resident Paul Egan was woken by what he believed to be fireworks.
He looked out of his window and saw Kettle take a magazine out of the gun and place it into the waistband of his trousers while standing in an alleyway, said prosecutor, Roiseen Keogh, (CORRECT).
Two officers, Insp Andy Greenhalgh and PC Khal Rahim (CORR), were on a plain clothes operation at the time and were called to the scene.
They saw Kettle get into a private hire car close to Carl Street and followed him to Greenmount Lane.
As he was getting out of the taxi, he spotted the pair and got on one knee before pulling the trigger twice.
The gun was not loaded but the officers heard the sound of the firing mechanism and reversed the car at high speed.
A police helicopter was called to the scene and officers on board also saw Kettle point the gun at them.
Officers from a armed police unit surrounded Kettle and ordered him to drop the weapon. He refused but was pinned to the ground and arrested.
Mrs Keogh said: "The gun was later found to be a blank-firing replica but indistinguishable from a Glock handgun."
Defending Kettle, Nick Ross said: "His remorse is profound and he is at as much of loss as anyone to explain his actions."
