The mother of Zain Sailsman told the court of her agonising battle to keep her son on the straight and narrow.
Spealing in the witness box, Madeline Fletcher said Zain was “a handful since the day he could walk” and permanently in scrapes and trouble at school.
After being expelled from two schools he was transfered to a special school. At 15 he started to steal from his mum to fund his canabis use, she said.
Mrs Fletcher said she took Zain to the police herself. She said: “I told Zain there was consequences to his actions. It was the way I tried to bring my kids up.”
But his behaviour got worse and, unable to be controlled by his family, Zain was taken into care, she said. Mrs Fletcher told the court: “I couldn’t put my other children at risk from the people he was mixing with. I was there for every court appearance. I never turned my back on him.”
After serving his first sentence in a young offenders institution Zain returned to Macclesfield and began selling drugs, the court heard.
However, Mrs Fletcher said she and her three daughters were threatened over Zain’s debts.
His mum even had her car and house vandalised, she told the court.
The family home was turned into a ‘fortress’ with panic alarms and a fire bomb proof letterbox, the judge heard.
Mrs Fletcher said: “They threatened they would petrol bomb the house. I was living in fear.”
After he stole and crashed his mum’s car Zain was recalled to prison, she said.
Mrs Fletcher told the court on Zain’s release in July 2013 she knew he was selling drugs after he “boasted” about his arrest on Facebook.
She said she had no idea Zain was involved in the shooting on October 8.
The next contact they had was when he called her at work from Blackpool asking for money, she added. She said: “He was crying, which wasn’t like him. He admitted carrying out the shooting with Charlie.
“I was shocked, especially as children were in the house. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t transfer money but said he would have to come back.”
Zain’s sister Yazmin collected him and took him to his step-dad’s in Manchester, Mrs Fletcher said.
She added that the next day he came back to Macclesfield to be with his girlfriend. She said: “I tried to make him see sense about the shooting.
“I couldn’t believe he could stoop so low. He said it was him who pulled the trigger. No one else had the bottle to do it. I told him to turn himself in.”
Mrs Fletcher said the last time she saw Zain he wanted to take his 10-year-old sister to the circus but was told it was not safe.
She said: “I gave him the tickets and slipped him £10. That was the last time I saw him alive.”
