Jailed, forklift driver who made lethal assault rif les with a 3D printer
A FORKLIFT driver who used a 3D printer to make assault rifles has been jailed for five years in one of the first prosecutions of its kind.
David Biddell-Portman, 30, used equipment bought on the internet to make deadly weapons at his home.
A court heard the father of two had a ‘fascination for firearms’ and police found two lethal guns, including one with a silencer, in his wardrobe. Gun-making guides, ammunition and parts were also discovered in his shed. The weapons were ‘capable of killing and maiming people’, Birmingham Crown Court was told. Sentencing Biddell-Portman, who admitted two charges of manufacturing a prohibited firearm, Judge Richard Bond said: ‘The reason you have come before the court is because you have a real fascination for firearms.’ He said there was evidence Biddell-Portman had tried one of the weapons out and it was an aggravating feature that one had a silencer. ‘This was a relatively sophisticated weapon in the way it had been constructed,’ the judge added. ‘These firearms were capable of killing and maiming people.’
The court heard that police were alerted to Biddell-Portman, of Erdington, Birmingham, in 2020 when he legally bought a blank firing pistol and 50 cartridges.
Officers carried out a routine check as a result, and discovered the illegal weapons. Both were part plastic and part metal, the plastic parts having been created by the printer.
Speaking after the case, Detective Inspector Lisa Jackson of West Midlands Police said: ‘This is the first time we’ve recovered a 3D-printed firearm. We still don’t know what Biddell-Portman had intended to do with the weapons. But the reality is that these were deadly weapons.’