A FATHER-of-two kept a Taser gun in a kitchen cupboard within reach of his children, a court was told.

Paul Maxwell claimed to have found the potentially lethal weapon in a park and brought it home.

It was found among crockery in a kitchen cupboard at his Eastleigh home by police officers who were carrying out a search of the property.

During the search they also found cannabis being grown in a bedroom and quantities of the drug found around the house, including a stash in the freezer.

Southampton Crown Court heard that officers were called to the property at Campbell Road and found a “tent-like” structure in the front bedroom that was being used as a cultivation area for six plants and five seedlings.

Prosecutor Rachel Robertson said that it would have produced about 70 grams of the drug, which was accepted would have been for Maxwell’s personal use over a period of two months.

She described how a further search of the address uncovered a Taser gun that was in full working order, although the battery was not fully charged.

A Taser or stun gun works by discharging a high-voltage electrical current.

Initially Maxwell, 31, claimed that the gun would not have been found by his children, aged seven and one, as they weren’t allowed in the kitchen, but a judge disagreed and found that he not only put his children at risk but also had no intention of handing in the weapon to police.

Mitigating for Maxwell, who pleaded guilty to having a prohibited weapon, cultivating cannabis and possession of cannabis, James Newton-Price said: “He should not have taken it home, it was a stupid thing to do.

“He accepts he should have put it somewhere well away from where a child could have found it.”

He added that Maxwell was made redundant from Pirelli in 2008 and since then had struggled to find a steady job, resulting in him smoking more cannabis.

In sentencing Maxwell to an 18-month community order, Recorder Gordon Bebb QC said that he had come close to prison.

He said: “Your children could, if they were minded to do so, have got hold of this weapon.

“Although I accept it was not found with a charger, the battery was partially charged and was therefore capable of doing some damage.”

Maxwell was also handed a £700 fine.