Philip Andrew Luty, 46, was once jailed for four years after making a semi-automatic sub-machinegun in a workshop at his Leeds home as research for a book.
He was due to face trial after he had denied three charges of making a record of information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism on a day or days before May 21, 2009.
The offences alleged he made a record of such information in the first charge of a document entitled Expedient Home-made Firearms being an instruction manual for producing home-made firearms, the second relating to Expedient Home-made Firearms Volume 2 and the third relating to a document on ammunition.
He was also accused of possessing a prohibited weapon on May 20, 2009, consisting of a collection of pipes which could be screwed together to produce a firearm from which a bulleted cartridge could be discharged.
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The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier QC said yesterday at Leeds Crown Court he was satisfied that Luty, of Bedford Mount, Tinshill, Leeds had died on April 8 and the indictment would be endorsed accordingly, “which brings this matter to an end”.
Miss Riel Karmy-Jones, prosecuting, said Luty was understood to have died from cancer. When he was 33 Luty was jailed for four years at the same court after he admitted manufacturing a prohibited weapon and having ammunition without a certificate.
His then counsel told the court he believed the gun laws in Britain were draconian and pointless because he could show that it was possible to make a weapon such as a semi-automatic sub-machinegun with simple everyday tools and equipment, and as a protest had published in America the details of how to do it.
Jailing him for four years Judge Trevor Kent-Jones said he accepted Luty had not intended any sinister use of the weapon.