A WEAPONS enthusiast has been spared a jail sentence after claiming that he kept a potentially lethal taser to fend off aggressive badgers.

Paul Osborne was caught with an arsenal of weapons including an illegally held shotgun, a curved sword which was more than half a metre long, a butterfly knife and two knuckledusters.

He was at risk of a mandatory five-year jail sentence because the taser was disguised as a torch and is classified as a prohibited firearm but a judge at Exeter Crown Court ruled there were exceptional circumstances not to impose such a sentence.

Osborne, who has no previous convictions, held a shotgun certificate for 15 years until his certificate was revoked in 2022 in the wake of the Keyham shootings.

He should have handed in the Revo shotgun to police but lied to the force’s firearms unit about having sold it to the Ladd’s Guns in Crediton.

In fact he had hidden it inside black bin bags in the attic of his home in Exeter.

It was found by police after they arrested him at his new address in Topsham and he went back to the house to search it. They found all the weapons in the loft space.

Osborne, aged 60, formerly of Headland Crescent, Exeter but now of Globefields, Topsham, admitted possession of a prohibited firearm, possession of a shotgun without a certificate and five offences of possessing weapons in a private place.

He was jailed for 16 months, suspended for two years and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid community work and 20 days of rehabilitation activities by Judge Stephen Climie.

He found there were exceptional circumstances which enabled him not to impose the mandatory five year sentence.

He told Osborne: “You held a legitimate firearms certificate for many years and so you were under the scrutiny of the police, which is comparatively rare in these cases.

“You lack any relevant previous convictions and have a positive good character, balanced against which in the past you had convictions for violence. There has been delay in this case.

“The prohibited weapon is comparatively low down among weapons in this category and you had limited knowledge of its prohibition. You never intended it to be used. It had the potential to inflict a fatal injury but that was never your intention when it came to possessing this item.

“You used it for an innocent purpose when out in the evening and for a second purpose to ensure some light when you went out in the dark.”

Mr Edward Bailey, prosecuting, said Osborne’s shotgun licence was revoked in 2022 and when police asked what had happened to it, he said he had taken it to Ladds in Crediton. Checks with the shop showed he had not.

He was arrested in Topsham on July 13 last year and replied to the caution by saying ‘I’m f***ed’. He helped the police locate a cache of weapons in the attic at Headland Crescent.

They included the torch taser, the shotgun, a large sword, two knuckledusters, a butterfly knife and an extendable baton.

He told police he had the taser to “scare away” badgers, had forgotten to hand in the gun, had the sword and knife as ornaments, had never used the batons and planned to fit the knuckledusters to his motorbike handlebars as decorations.

Miss Hollie Gilbery, defending, said it would be disproportionate to impose the five year mandatory term because Osborne had never used any of the weapons, posed no threat to the public, and has mental health issues which are now being treated.