Kariuki Mathu
A Kenyan student in the UK has been sent to jail for importing two stun guns and an incapacitor spray.
Kariuki Mathu pleaded guilty to three counts of improperly importing goods and was given a three-month jail term, suspended for two years, with 150 hours of unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £340 (Sh49,000) towards prosecution costs.
Judge Patrick Palmer told Mathu: “If there was the least suspicion these weapons would be used in a criminal offence you would be going to prison for very many years. It is an exceptionally serious matter to import weapons.”
In his defence, Mathu said that he illegally bought two stun guns on the Internet to protect his girlfriend, who was being racially abused in Sheffield.
The student decided not to report the harassment to police and instead ordered two stun guns and an incapacitor spray from a US website.
But the Sheffield Hallam University student was arrested for importing illegal weapons after his package was intercepted by Border Agency staff at Coventry Airport.
On Friday, Sheffield Crown Court was told that Mathu did not know he was doing anything wrong when he placed an order for the items online.
His lawyer, Nicholas Neale, told the court: “The culture from which he comes does not trust the police in the way we do here.
“It was a genuinely naive act. There was no warning on the website that there may be any difficulty in importing these items.”
DAILY NATION
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