Policeman suffered collapsed lung ‘after being stabbed by drug dealer’

PC Russell Turner, 56, was knifed during a struggle in a Portsmouth Park after responding to reports of drug dealing in the area.

A police officer suffered a collapsed lung after being repeatedly stabbed during a struggle with a suspected drug dealer, a court heard.

Hampshire PC Russell Turner, 56, was knifed when he and colleague PC Clare Parry approached Michael Enzanga, 20, following reports of drug dealing in Stamshaw Park, jurors were told.

Portsmouth Crown Court heard a scuffle broke out when Enzanga, then aged 19, tried to run away from the officers on February 21.

Dale Sullivan, prosecuting, said: ‘During the course of the struggle the defendant stabbed the officer several times, causing wounds to him which ultimately caused his lungs to collapse and him needing medical attention.’

Enzanga, from Tottenham in north London, denies GBH with intent and possessing a knife in relation to PC Turner’s injuries.

He has also pleaded not guilty to four charges of possession with intent to supply cocaine and heroin as well as another of possessing criminal property in relation to £1,000 cash recovered.

Jurors were told that having stabbed the officer, Enzanga ran towards a block of flats called Hastings House.

He was spotted by members of the public as he fled and CCTV captured him carrying a knife before he was tasered by other officers, the court heard.

Mr Sullivan said he was found hiding under a tarpaulin after vaulting into a back garden.

‘The barbs from the taser deployment were still in his back,’ he added.

A sweatshirt which fell to the ground during the struggle and a carrier bag containing 60 wraps of either crack cocaine or heroin were left at the fight scene, the jury was told.

Enzanga’s DNA was allegedly found on both items.

A mobile phone seized following his arrest contained messages consistent ‘with somebody who had been dealing drugs’, jurors heard.

Police further recovered a silver kitchen knife, the court was told.

The prosecutor said Enzanga had been beaten up in the same park by a number of unknown males the night before.

He refused help from passers-by and did not want the police to get involved.

But he also left behind a number of individual wraps of crack cocaine or heroin, Mr Sullivan said.

The prosecutor added that Enzanga’s DNA was similarly recovered from the cling film on those bundles as well.

His trial continues.