Context :

Aims : Within the central parsec of the Galaxy , several tens of young stars orbiting a central supermassive black hole are observed .
A subset of these stars forms a coherently rotating disc .
Other observations reveal a massive molecular torus which lies at a radius \sim 1.5 \mathrm { pc } from the centre .
In this paper we consider the gravitational influence of the molecular torus upon the stars of the stellar disc .

Methods : We derive an analytical formula for the rate of precession of individual stellar orbits and we show that it is highly sensitive upon the orbital semi-major axis and inclination with respect to the plane of the torus as well as on the mass of the torus .

Results : Assuming that both the stellar disc and the molecular torus are stable on the time-scale \gtrsim 6 \mathrm { Myr } , we constrain the mass of the torus and its inclination with respect to the young stellar disc .
We further suggest that all young stars observed in the Galactic Centre may have a common origin in a single coherently rotating structure with an opening angle \lesssim 5 \degr , which was partially destroyed ( warped ) during its lifetime by the gravitational influence of the molecular torus .

Conclusions :