Sentencing of crimeworld guns maker

7:35am Thursday 28th August 2008

A gunsmith whose converted weapons were used in dozens of gangland shootings is due to be sentenced.

Grant Wilkinson adapted replica sub-machine guns for use by the criminal underworld in a shed he turned into a gun factory.

His lethal Mac-10s were used in nine murders, including the killing of 15-year-old Michael Dosunmu and in the robbery that led to the death of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky.

Wilkinson, 34, modified the weapons in a paddock behind a derelict house in Berkshire. Police believe the scale of his operation is without precedent in Britain.

Prosecutors said his firearms "factory" was able to meet the level of demand nationwide for the weapons.

One gun was fired at the scene of the Bradford robbery in which Pc Beshenivsky was killed in November 2005, although it did not fire the fatal shot.

Another of his Mac-10s was fired at Dosunmu, 15, as he lay in bed in Peckham, south-east London.

Some 40 weapons from his cache are still on the streets, and Scotland Yard has offered a £10,000 reward for information leading to their recovery.

Wilkinson began producing the guns in 2004 in two sheds at The Briars in Three Mile Cross, Berkshire. One of his tenants stumbled upon gun-making equipment and tools in the shed and alerted police.

He will be sentenced before Judge Zoe Smith at Reading Crown Court.

Latest news, sport and entertainment