A TEENAGER has been banned from going out at weekends after drunkenly brandishing a stun gun at revellers.

Joseph Byrne, 19, admitted using the stun gun to threaten two men in the early hours of August 29 outside a bar in Cowley Road, Oxford.

Oxford magistrates heard today unemployed Byrne found the device, which was disguised as a mobile phone, on the ground earlier in the evening.

When a friend was involved in an altercation with two men outside the Kasbar bar, Byrne pulled the stun gun out of his pocket and fired it up to produce an electric bolt, the court heard.

Magistrates handed Byrne, of Nunnery Close, Greater Leys, Oxford, a community order for unpaid work and imposed a weekend night time curfew lasting for two months.

Mohamed Sheikh, prosecuting, said: “A member of public phoned police saying she could see Mr Byrne across the road waving a black device that was discharging blue electric bolt and making a clicking sound.

“It was charged three or four times in a bid to scare off the two men.”

When police arrived Byrne threw the stun gun to the ground, but it was retrieved.

The two men who Byrne brandished the towards fled and have not been traced, Mr Sheikh added.

Nawaz Khan, defending, told the court Byrne found the on the ground in Marston and thought it was a mobile phone.

He later realised it was a stun gun disguised as a phone and kept the device in his pocket until a friend was being verbally abused by two men at about 1.30am.

Byrne had been drinking since 4pm, Mr Khan told the court, and regularly embarked on weekend binge drinking sessions.

Mr Khan added: “He has been unemployed since May last year.

“It seems that in the company of friends he has been resorting to alcohol more heavily than he should.”

Byrne, a trained carpenter, labourer and floor fitter, admitted possession of an offensive weapon and a public order offence at an earlier hearing.

Chris Tilley, chairman of the magistrates, handed him a community order for 12 months to carry out 200 hours unpaid work. Byrne was also given a two-month curfew banning the teenager from leaving his home between 7pm and 7am every Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Mrs Tilley said the restriction was imposed to prevent Byrne from going out and drinking heavily at weekends.

She said: “This is a serious offence.

“I know you didn’t actually make contact with anybody but you waved it around enough to make it noticable to someone in the street.

“It was certainly used and you had consumed a lot of alcohol.

“Although you felt like you weren’t trying to hurt anyone, someone could have got hurt.”

Det Insp Simon Morton, of Oxford CID, said: “The possession of an illegal firearm is something that we take very seriously."