A MUM-OF-TWO from Ellesmere Port has been jailed for possessing a 9,000-volt stun-gun disguised as a torch.

Tracy Murillo, 58, claimed she bought the device for £5 from “some Polish person in the street” believing it simply to be a rechargeable torch.

But an examination by police experts revealed it was actually an illegal Taser-style firearm capable of dealing out a significant – but non-lethal – electric shock.

Chester Crown Court heard on Monday (February 11) that the weapon was discovered in the garage of her home on Wilkinson Street after a drugs raid.

She was found to be in possession of a small amount of cannabis as well as 20.8g of amphetamine with a street value of around £105 on February 17 last year.

In police interview, Murillo admitted that she used both drugs herself and sometimes sold amphetamine to friends.

Prosecutor Paulinus Barnes suggested that she would carry the weapon as protection when selling drugs but she denied this saying the ‘torch’ had never been used.

Asked why she had bought it in the first place, she said its ability to be recharged was appealing and its packaging did not reveal its dual-purpose.

“Some Polish person was selling them in the street, selling them as torches,” Murillo told the court. “I didn’t realise what it was until the police said.”

She was jailed for four years after pleading guilty to possession of a class B drug with intent to supply, possession of a disguised firearm and simple possession of cannabis.

Brian Treadwell, defending, said Murillo had not known she bought an illegal weapon and stressed she had been entirely honest and co-operative with police.

A mother of two teenage children who has a long-standing drugs problem, she relies on benefits and has now lost the tenancy on her home.

The court heard she has 27 previous convictions for 64 offences including theft, dishonesty and drugs matters.

Her arrest last year put her in breach of an eight-month suspended prison sentence that she had received for supplying drugs in 2017.

Jailing her, Judge Patrick Thompson said: “You are 58 years old. The time has come when you really need to get yourself drug-free otherwise you will be spending the rest of your time serving one prison sentence after another.”

Murillo will spend half of her sentence in custody and half in the community on licence.