A 'hugely naive' businesswoman who sold illegal 'self-defence kits' including CS gas and a knife designed to protect women from would be attackers has narrowly avoided jail. Renea Thorn-Jones, 21, set up an online business called Brat Boutique advertising 'self-defence kits' for £11, which included a CS gas canister and a concealed knife stored within a key.
Thorn-Jones, from Wythenshawe, said she'd spotted similar items for a sale on an American website and regarded it as a 'business opportunity'. But she did not realise what she was doing was illegal and could land her in jail.
Manchester Crown Court heard that she sold about 20 to 30 of the kits, which she advertised on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube alongside other items on her website including press-on fingernails, eyelashes and tarot readings. She made about £300 from selling the kits. Police were alerted to her website and officers arrested her at her home, where they discovered 60 'highly dangerous and noxious' CS gas canisters and 25 knives concealed in keys.
Thorn-Jones said she sourced the items from a website in China and had them delivered in the post, and did not suspect what she was doing was illegal. She narrowly avoided jail after facing a prison sentence of up to six years, after a judge said Thorn-Jones had been 'hugely naive' and learned a 'difficult lesson'.
"You genuinely believed that these kits would protect women," Judge Sarah Johnston told her. "You regret deeply your naivety and foolishness.
"You are yourself troubled by the potential consequences of the sale of these items, and into whose hands they have now fallen." Prosecutors said GMP were alerted to her website in August last year by the Metropolitan Police. Thorn-Jones appeared in a video on her YouTube channel titled 'not so sweet self-defence kit', which was viewed more than 24,000 times.
She said that the items, apart from the CS gas, could be shipped worldwide. Police went to her home in October last year and arrested her.
She told officers that she sold the gas in a bid to help women fend off an attacker. When questioned about the knives, she said she hadn't thought of them being used as a weapon or falling into the wrong hands, prosecutor Gavin Howie said.
The court heard prosecutors are currently unaware who she sold the self-defence kits to, and the judge urged police to investigate so the weapons can be retrieved. Defending, Jeremy Barton said it 'beggars belief' that Thorn-Jones 'could be so naive', and she genuinely believed she wasn't acting illegally.
Mr Barton said she'd donated some of the proceeds of her business to Hands Off, a charity which supports women who have been sexually assaulted. He said Thorn-Jones suffered from depression as a child and underwent counselling.
"She realises how wrong what she has done is, she is remorseful and respectful of the law," Mr Barton said. Judge Johnston told Thorn-Jones: "There is in my judgement a terrible irony, that this business presented a turning point in your life in that it gave you a sense of purpose and achievement, against a background of mental health frailty, anxiety and depression, but has now had the consequences that you are here to be sentenced before me for very serious offences."
Thorn-Jones has not been in trouble with the law before and her crimes were 'wholly out of character', the judge said. She ruled it would be 'arbitrary and disproportionate' to send Thorn-Jones to jail, and instead handed her a two year prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, as well as unpaid work.
"Your intention was to keep women safe, in the absence of any knowledge that these items were illegal," the judge said. Thorn-Jones, of Drake Avenue, Wythenshawe, pleaded guilty to possessing CS gas with intent to sell and possessing bladed articles with intent to sell.
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