A WOMAN who armed herself with a stun gun and CS gas spray to defend herself from her violent partner has been treated exceptionally and spared an immediate prison sentence.

Joanne Duffy was caught with the weapon disguised as a torch and the spray in a lip-stick-like container at her home more than two years ago, Bradford Crown Court heard.

She had bought them through a website based in North America, kept them in her bedroom and never used them.

Duffy, 41, pleaded guilty to two offences of possession of a prohibited weapon on July 26, 2020.

The court heard that she had 19 previous convictions for 25 offences, including affray and possession of an offensive weapon many years ago.

Firearms officers went to her home in Hall Street, Oakworth, in the early evening after she rang the police saying her then partner had a taser and she wanted him to leave and go back to his address.

The man was seen carrying two bags and he told officers the weapon was Duffy’s and she had bought it through a website.

The police seized the item, which turned out to be a disguised stun gun, and the container of CS gas from her bedroom.

The website, which was named in court, allegedly facilitated the purchase of illegal items destined for people in the UK.

The police found a video of someone holding the stun gun in the bedroom but they couldn’t say whose hand was on the film.

Duffy’s barrister, Anastasis Tasou, urged the court to take an exceptional course.

She had been in thrall to the man who had assaulted and abused her, reporting him to the police and then withdrawing her support for the prosecution.

She had bought the weapons in June 2019 and never used them, even though the man had continued to abuse her.

Duffy was now free of the ‘toxic relationship,’ Mr Tasou said.

Judge Jonathan Rose said there were exceptional circumstances and he could spare her an immediate jail sentence. She had armed herself to defend herself in her own home and never used either of the weapons.

She was sentenced to 21 months imprisonment, suspended for two years, with 200 hours of unpaid work and 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days with the probation service.

Judge Rose ordered the forfeiture and destruction of both weapons and reserved any breaches of the sentence to himself.