Man accused of stabbing Portsmouth plainclothes police officer in park says he was in city looking for a job

A SUSPECTED drug dealer accused of stabbing a plainclothes police officer denied he was part of a London gang peddling drugs in Portsmouth, a court heard.
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Michael Enzanga, 20, denied he was behind the stabbing of 56-year-old PC Russell Turner at Stamshaw Park in February.

The defendant was giving evidence during his trial at Portsmouth Crown Court.

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Prosecutor Dale Sullivan told Enzanga: ‘The truth is you’re a drug dealer from London who came to Portsmouth to sell drugs?’

A man who the prosecution says is Michael Enzanga climbing a wall in Stamshaw after a police officer was stabbed in FebruaryA man who the prosecution says is Michael Enzanga climbing a wall in Stamshaw after a police officer was stabbed in February
A man who the prosecution says is Michael Enzanga climbing a wall in Stamshaw after a police officer was stabbed in February

Enzanga replied: ‘No.’

The defendant also denied he had stabbed the officer in the back twice after he was apprehended - saying ‘no’.

Enzanga was arrested in a garden in Jervis Road hiding under tarpaulin after the stabbing that left the neighbourhood officer with a collapsed lung. Undercover PC Turner had gone to detain the assailant when a violent struggle broke out.

A silver kitchen knife was found in the Jervis Road garden with blood on its tip the next day.

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Mr Sullivan also poured scorn on Enzanga’s claims he had moved to Portsmouth to find a job after being recommended the area by a former prison cellmate.

‘You tell us you came to Portsmouth to find a job and within half a year you still don’t have one. You also told us you were about to get a job in London but instead suddenly take to Portsmouth where you do not have one,’ he said.

Enzanga replied: ‘I was going to get a job. I just needed time to process things.’

He also rejected claims that £900 found on him when he was arrested was drug money. ‘It was money from my benefits and money I had borrowed from friends,’ he said.

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‘If I had been drug dealing I would have had a lot more money.’

Londoner Enzanga, 20, of Ashfield Road, Tottenham, denies grievous bodily harm with intent, possession of a knife, four charges of possessing class A drugs with intent to supply and possessing criminal property - nearly £1,000 in cash.

The trial has previously heard that witnesses saw a man being attacked near the Stamshaw adventure playground on the day before the stabbing, and saw the same man on the morning that PC Turner was stabbed.

(Proceeding)