The cousin of convicted murderer Roger Troughton has been cleared of a charge of possession of a prohibited firearm.

Prosecutor Stephen Davies offered no evidence against 58-year-old Nigel Troughton, of Paynes Place, Bushley, near Upton-upon-Severn, who pleaded not guilty.

The weapon, made in 1878 by Webley, the famous gunsmiths, was exempt from the Firearms Act because of its antiquity, Worcester Crown Court was told.

The charge was dropped after the prosecution considered a report on the Bulldog double-action revolver made by a firearms expert based on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

The gun had been handed down in the Troughton family through many generations, said Simon Burns, defending.

It had been kept in an old bureau, was deactivated and had never been used.

Judge Robert Juckes QC ordered the weapon to be forfeited but not destroyed.

He agreed with a suggestion by the defence that police should hand the gun over to the curator of the Soldiers of Gloucester Museum so that it could be put on public display.

Mr Troughton, a farmer, was a man of good character.

Cattle farmer Roger Troughton, aged 74, of Wood Street Farm, Wood Street, Bushley, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 12 years for the murder of another cousin Robin Troughton, 59.

He was convicted by a jury in February.

Robin Troughton, of The Cowshed, The Ramplings, Longdon, near Upton, was killed with a fencing spade on the lawn of the family home in Paynes Place where his brother Nigel and mother lived.