Defence worker Artem Vasilyev eligible for parole after printing 3D guns

A Defence Department worker who said he should not be viewed a threat to National Security as he did not want to distress his mother again has learnt his fate for a huge gun stash.

A Defence Department is eligible for parole for a huge gun stash after he was found not guilty of plotting to destroy a power station.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court heard Artem Vasilyev was now considered a low risk of violence after gaining considerable insight into his “reckless” offending.

Vasilyev, 27, of Findon, pleaded guilty to 22 firearms offences but not guilty to committing other acts done in preparation for, or planning, a terrorist act.

The firearms charges related to weapons, both commercially-made and 3D-printed, seized from his home during a police raid.

Vasilyev repeatedly denied allegations he was a white nationalist terrorist bent on blowing up a power station, and was acquitted by a jury after three days of deliberations.

Vasilyev was acquitted on a terrorism charge by a jury.

Scott Henchliffe KC, for Vasilyev, previously told his Russian-born client had created the guns out of “intellectual curiosity”, owing to his “lifelong fascination” with firearms.

“He was not intending to make 18 guns, he was making one … the other 17 represent the by-products of the trial-and-error process,” he said.

Justice Sandi McDonald previously expressed concern over a psychological report which deemed Vasilyev as no risk to the community.

“In terms of the risk he poses to the community, you can’t just ignore the fact he had such a massive hoard of white supremacist material, and material relating to explosives and bombs,” she said.

“(Psychologist Loraine Lim) said in her opinion that you were someone who is in the process of becoming radicalised at the time you were soliciting extremist material and engaging in chats with other like-minded individuals,” Justice McDonald said.

Artem Vasilyev is now eligible for parole. Picture: University of Adelaide.

However, court heard when Dr Lim asked Vasilyev why he should not be viewed a threat to National Security he replied that after everything he put his mother through he did not want to distress her again or jeopardise his future.

Dr Lim said she now considered Vasilyev a low risk of violence, as his insight into his “reckless and ill-informed” offending had significantly improved.

The court heard Dr Lim formed the view that Vasilyev had high functioning autism – with him telling her he had been called a robot and Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory while in prison.

Justice McDonald sentenced Vasilyev to four years and nine months, with a non-parole period of three years.

The sentence was backdated to September 28, 2021, meaning Vasilyev is eligible for parole.