A Carlisle man caught with two illegal Taser torches while subject to a court sentence for an identical previous crime has been jailed.
Police who searched 24-year-old David Kirkup’s Stonegarth home in the summer of 2019 found a stun device disguised as an iPhone-style mobile phone with clear prongs protruding from it.
For that offence, he was sentenced in January last year with a 16-month prison term suspended for two years.
But on September 27, police arrested him in connection with an unrelated allegation, and made a number of significant discoveries at his address, Carlisle Crown Court heard this afternoon.
These included a television and CD player stolen hours earlier from a city house; a small amount of cocaine; and two Taser torches on which police 5,000 watts was written.
They were not functioning and did not appear to be charged.
Kirkup admitted possessing the prohibited weapons, having cocaine and handling stolen goods, along with shop theft.
His lawyer, Mark Shepherd, said his instructions were that the items were missed by police during the original search.
Kirkup held on to them after his initial sentencing, fearful of the consequences if he handed them over, but hadn’t intend using them.
Judge Nicholas Barker heard of Kirkup’s complex mental health difficulties and a psychiatric report which flagged up his obsessive hoarding and collecting tendencies.
“Courts take possession of prohibited weapons very seriously,” said Judge Barker as he imposed an 18-month prison sentence.
“If they are in your possession, they are capable of coming into the possession of others.” He added: “Criminals use weapons to facilitate crime; to intimidate; to threaten; and to pursue criminal activity.”
