Student jailed for making 3D printed gun

Tendai Muswere pleaded guilty to making a gun capable of firing live ammunition

A "loner" university student has been jailed for making a gun using a 3D printer.

Tendai Muswere, 26, from Pimlico, London, was jailed for three years by Southwark Crown Court for manufacturing the firearm.

Police found the weapon during a drugs raid at the media student's home in October 2017.

They found parts of a 3D printed gun for which he did not have a firearms licence, as well as cannabis.

Muswere told officers they were props for a sci-fi film he was making for a university project, adding he had found the ammunition rounds in a park.

His lawyer described Muswere as a "loner" with anxiety issues who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and had regularly smoked cannabis.

Muswere made this 3D gun

Police had searched Muswere's home address on the Lillington Gardens Estate on two occasions.

They found two 3D printers that were in the process of printing a barrel of a revolver and numerous components for making Washbear and Reprringer firearms.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said during a second raid Muswere threw an incomplete and melted 3D printed cylinder for a Reprringer pepper-box handgun out of the kitchen window as police arrived at the house.

Firearm experts found the only parts missing from many of his 3-D firearms were the steel tubing needed to make them usable.

Claire Holder, from the CPS, said Muswere had claimed the firearms were incapable of firing deadly shots.

"However, he was using 3D designs found on the internet which were specifically for the making of live firearms.

"We believe it showed that he was trying to perfect a workable firearm."

Muswere previously pleaded guilty to two counts of manufacturing a prohibited firearm and two counts of possessing a prohibited firearm.