Nuisance drug-dealing Portsmouth teenager banned from Buckland jailed for more than 5 years

Portsmouth Crown Court heard Shariff Shakur threatened to attack the officer who was arresting him at his home.

The January 11 incident comes after Shakur, 18, was banned by a judge from entering Buckland after putting residents in terror as he and others would revel ‘in a culture of fear’.

Police have welcomed his jailing saying his actions in blighting the community were ‘simply not acceptable’.

On Friday the court heard police had come to the teenager’s house when they heard an old-style Nokia ringing and he closed the door.

Shakur, who has 19 previous offences, claimed it was his iPhone. But his mum called this and a different ringtone played, causing him to become ‘irate’.

Prosecutor Jennifer Gray said: ‘He tried to get past his mother saying “let me get a knife”. Fortunately she was able to prevent him entering the kitchen.’

Officers arrested him, finding £860 in cash and three wraps of heroin and crack cocaine.

When he was questioned police found him ‘disruptive, aggressive, belligerent, and abusive,’ the court heard.

Jailing Shakur for 65 months, judge David Melville QC said: ‘You are a high risk offender - that’s to say there’s a high risk of you committing an offence, and furthermore a high risk of you causing serious harm to the public.

‘There’s a risk of you committing physical violence with other people, and certainly your behaviour when the police came to call rather shows that it’s very likely indeed.’

Shakur has a history of assaults as a youth. He has a series of past offences for drug dealing. He has nine convictions for 19 offences, including having an air weapon.

A previous hearing was adjourned over fears Shakur was the victim of modern slavery.

But today the court heard he is under investigation for possibly ‘coercing’ others to deal drugs.

Portsmouth Central police inspector Marcus Kennedy said: ‘We know from having spoken to local residents how much Shakur’s behaviour has negatively impacted people’s lives and this is simply not acceptable.

‘We’re dedicated to improving the quality of life for our communities while reducing crime, and hope that this result offers some reassurance to the residents impacted by drug related harm and associated criminal activity.

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‘We will continue to keep up the pressure on those known locally to us as being involved in drug-related activity.’

He urged anyone with intelligence about drug dealing to call 101.

‘Every call you make helps us to build a strong intelligence picture and enables us to take positive action and bring offenders to justice,’ he said.

Mitigating, Simon Walters said his client quit a national process deciding whether or not he was a victim of slavery.

‘He is somebody who became involved in the murky world of supplying class A drugs at an extremely young age,’ he said.

‘He was and is, in my submission, a vulnerable young person.’

As he was led down to the cells Shakur told his mum in the public gallery: ‘Love you.’

Shakur is due to be sentenced by city magistrates after admitting having an air weapon, a BB handgun, in Moorland Road, Fratton, on December 28 last year.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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