Accused: ‘I’m not a nut job who’s going to shoot police’

James Leslie, 38, was explaining how Pc Suzanne Hudson, 33, came to be shot with a sawn-off shotgun at his flat in Leeds.

Pc Hudson was peppered through a door at close range in the hand and neck as she and Pc Richard Whiteley carried out routine early morning inquiries about a neighbour dispute, Leeds Crown Court has heard.

Giving evidence, Leslie, repeatedly denied he had any reason to shoot the officer. He said: “I’m not a nut job who’s just going to shoot down police for no reason”.

Leslie told the jury that if he had wanted to kill police officers he could have shot Pc Hudson again outside his flat and he could have attacked the police who eventually arrested him hours later in Leeds.

“I’ve got no grievance with the police,” he said.

“They’re doing a hard job. They’re doing a good job. They’ve done nothing wrong to me.”

Leslie claims he found the gun in his flat and was intending to brandish it at some people outside he feared were going to attack him. He said he did not know it was police at the door and had not taken his medication that night for his schizophrenia.

“It happened so fast I can’t explain,” the defendant said. “I don’t even know how the gun went off.”

He said he originally thought it went off when he hit it against a work surface in the kitchen. But he said he accepted expert opinion that this was not possible.

Leslie said he now thought it might have been the drawstring of a shower bag that got caught around the weapon and caused it to go off.

“It’s crazy to say that I would shoot a police officer,” he said. “I’m looking at a criminal damage charge and now I’m looking at attempted murder. I was content with myself. I had a good life. Why would I want to shoot a police officer? It does not make sense.”

Leslie denies attempting to murder the police officer. He has admitted possessing a prohibited weapon and causing criminal damage.

The trial continues.