Importer of dangerous laser pens sentenced to half a year of community service 

The decision to sentence an importer of dangerous laser pens to six months community service has been welcomed by Oliver Dowden MP. Last December, a nine-year-old boy from Bushey, Jonathan Marshall, purchased a laser pen from a Christmas fair at a school in Radlett. The laser pen in question was well over the safe legal limit and, after playing with the pen, Jonathan’s eye was permanently damaged, requiring hospital treatment. Since being made aware of the incident, Mr Dowden has worked with Jonathan’s mother, Angela Marshall, to raise awareness of the dangers of the pens and to call for the Government to introduce robust safeguards to ensure there is no repeat of similar incidents. The owner of the company which imported the dangerous laser pens from China, Lynsey McClure, 47, of Effingham, Surrey, was sentenced to 240 hours of community service after telling a court she was “deeply sorry” for the distress caused when the laser pen burnt the retina of Jonathan’s left eye. The case – believed to be the first in which the sale of a laser has been directly linked to an injury – came as it emerged that the Government was considering strengthening the law and treating laser pointers as ‘offensive weapons’. Such a move would give the police powers to stop and search those they believed were carrying handheld lasers and to make arrests, even if they had not witnessed them being used. To hear what Oliver Dowden MP had to say and more in the September edition of MyRadlett&ShenleyNews, which will be distributed on August 26.