Afternoon:
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Their blood on his hands
Justin Davenport and Rob Singh, Evening Standard27 Aug 2008
A man was found guilty today of supplying London gangsters with sub-machineguns that have been linked to at least nine murders.
Grant Wilkinson, 34, posed as a member of the production crew on a James Bond movie to buy 90 replica Mac 10 "spray and pray" guns which he converted into lethal weapons.
Today it can be revealed that the guns were used by the gang which shot dead Pc Sharon Beshenivsky during a robbery and the death of 15-year-old Michael Dosunmu who was killed as he slept in his bed in Peckham last year.
The boy's parents today accused Wilkinson of having "blood on his hands".
Shakira and Rasak Dosunmu said Wilkinson was as guilty as their son's killers. Churchgoer Michael was the victim of mistaken identity.
Police said that 50 of the guns had been recovered but 40 were missing. They revealed that the weapons had been used in 52 shootings across Britain since 2004, 47 of them in London.
After the verdict Scotland Yard announced a £10,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of the missing guns or the conviction of people involved in the shootings.
Detective Chief Superintendent George Turner of Thames Valley Police, who led the investigation, said there had been a surge in shootings involving Mac 10s since Wilkinson set himself up as an armourer to the underworld.
Wilkinson adapted the guns in a shed in Berkshire before the weapons were distributed to criminals in London.
A jury at Reading crown court convicted him of a series of offences, including conspiracy to convert an imitation weapon into a firearm, conspiracy to sell or transfer firearms and ammunition, possession of a firearm with intent to enable another person to endanger life and possessing a prohibited firearm, namely a Mac 10. He will be sentenced at a later date.
Wilkinson's co-defendant Gary Lewis, 38, of Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, was found not guilty.
The court heard how Wilkinson bought the replica sub-machineguns and ammunition for £55,000 claiming they were to be used as props in a Bond film.
Wilkinson, using the name Gary Wilson, bought the guns from firearms dealer Guy Savage, the company director of Sabre Defence Industries of Northolt.
Mr Savage, whose company declares on its website to be a leading weapons provider to the US government, sold the guns for cash in batches of 10 at a time.
Wilkinson, of no fixed abode, set up the factory in 2004. When police raided the rundown outbuildings in Three Mile Cross near Reading after a tip-off a year ago, they stumbled upon a sophisticated workshop and soundproofed firing range.
Officers found three Mac10s in various states of conversion as well as spent and spare live cartridges, gun components and partially-adapted handguns.
The replica weapons were converted to real firearms capable of firing 4,000 rounds a minute and sold to gangsters for between £1,500 to £2,500 each.
Many of the shootings were in Brixton and Peckham and detectives believe they fuelled a bloody war between gangs.
Reader views (4)
At the very least it's conspiracy to commit murder.
- Bob, Cheam, 28/08/2008 10:46
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'Stumbled upon' says it all about our shambolic PC police 'force' under the useless Blair.
Get him sacked.
- Dave, Grange-Over-Sands, 28/08/2008 09:29
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That makes it easy - convict him of the murders. Unlike legal retailers of weapons, this man had every reason to expect that the guns would be used 100% in illegal activities.
- Rogan, DFW TX, 28/08/2008 00:22
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Life meaning life for this chap.
- Don, london, 28/08/2008 00:20
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