UK man first in Britain to be convicted of using 3D printer to make a gun, after claiming it was for a university project
- The 26-year-old man, whose gun was found during a drugs raid in October 2017, claimed he printed the firearm for a ‘dystopian’ university film project
- But police found he had searched the internet to watch videos on how to make a weapon that could fire live ammunition
Components for the weapon were discovered during a drugs raid on a home in central London in October 2017.
Tendai Muswere, 26, who pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court on Wednesday to manufacturing a firearm, told detectives he was printing the 3D gun for a university project.
Officers however found he had searched the internet to watch videos on how to make a weapon that could fire live ammunition.
A second raid on Muswere’s home in February last year found further components of a 3D-printed gun.
Police said in a statement they believed it was the first British conviction relating to a gun made using a 3D printer.
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“Muswere claimed that he was printing the firearms for a ‘dystopian’ university film project but he has not explained why he included the component parts necessary to make a lethal barrelled weapon,” said acting Detective Sergeant Jonathan Roberts.
He added: “We know that Muswere was planning to line the printed firearms with steel tubes in order to make a barrel capable of firing.”
