A father-of seven from Bourne who manufactured a home made firearm to harm himself has been jailed for three years.
Robert Bulpin (46) admitted making the weapon after police found it in a children’s school bag during a search at his home.
Lincoln Crown Court heard officers found the brass device with a working firing mechanism in the gold school bag together with four legal game cartridges.
The prohibited weapon was usually kept in Bulpin’s bedroom drawer but was moved after he learnt of the search.
Bulpin “panicked” when he learnt of the raid and asked somebody else to move the firearm, the court was told.
During police interview Bulpin said he suffered from depression and had used the weapon on just two occasions when it failed to go off during suicide attempts.
Bulpin, an engineer by trade, admitted making the weapon in 2008.
A police firearms expert who set the weapon off under controlled conditions found it was capable of discharging a round.
The expert concluded the mechanism was not clean and looked like the barrel of a shotgun which had been fired several times.
Bulpin, of North Road, Bourne, pleaded guilty to manufacturing a prohibited firearm following the search on December 18.
Chris Jeyes, mitigating, told the court Bulpin had no links to organised crime or the drugs world, and the firearm was not obvious to an untrained eye.
Mr Jeyes added: “He is a married man with seven children, the youngest of whom is just a year old.”
Bulpin claimed the bedroom which he shared with his wife and where the firearm was stored in a drawer was always kept locked.
Passing sentence Judge Michael Heath said while he accepted the weapon had been built to harm himself he did not believe that the door to the bedroom where the firearm was stored was always kept locked.
“In a busy house with a number of children it would not be practical,” Judge Heath told Bulpin.
Judge Heath added: “This was a firearm that with your engineering skill and background you manufactured yourself.
“In a gold school bag was found this object.”