A student was convicted on Wednesday of manufacturing a firearm using a 3D printer, in what London’s police said they believed was the first such successful prosecution in Britain.
Tendai Muswere, 26, pleaded guilty to making the 3D printed gun, in a hearing at Southwark Crown Court in the British capital.
Police searched Muswere’s central London home on drugs grounds in October 2017. They found evidence of cannabis cultivation — and also components of a 3D printed gun, capable of firing a lethal shot.
Zimbabwean national Muswere, who does not hold a firearms licence, said he was printing the firearm for a university film project and claimed he did not know that the components were capable of firing.
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“He later refused to comment on what his film project was about,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Officers went through his internet search history and found he had viewed videos demonstrating how to use a 3D printer to manufacture firearms which fired live ammunition.
A second raid in February 2018 resulted in the discovery of further components of a 3D printed gun.
“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, who led the investigation.
“Muswere was planning to line the printed firearms with steel tubes in order to make a barrel capable of firing.
“This conviction, which I believe is the first of its kind relating to the use of a 3D printer to produce a firearm, has prevented a viable gun from getting into the hands of criminals.”
Muswere will be sentenced on August 9.