A Gosport man who detonated an explosive device in front of police officers has admitted the offence in court.

On August 28, 2023, police attended an address in Carr Court, Davenport Close, shortly before 10am to arrest Damian Mazurkiewicz, 54, for an unrelated matter.

Attending officers entered the address where they found Mazurkiewicz holding an imitation firearm.

Mazurkiewicz was challenged by officers before he pressed a trigger switch – that he was holding in his other hand.

This resulted in a burst of black smoke being released from a black box attached to his body.

Officers deployed Taser before removing Mazurkiewicz from the address along with the low explosive device.

Local residents were evacuated from their homes while the Royal Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal team (EOD) attended the scene to make the device safe.

Mazurkiewicz, of Davenport Close in Gosport, was subsequently charged with doing an act with intent to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or damage property.

The 54-year-old was also charged with possession of an imitation firearm.

He initially denied the offences and the case went to trial at Winchester Crown Court on Wednesday, February 21 this year.

However, he then pleaded guilty to the offences on the first day of the trial.

Mazurkiewicz was remanded in custody to appear at Portsmouth Crown Court for sentencing on March 27, 2024.

Chief Inspector Chris Spellerberg, District Commander for Fareham & Gosport, said: “I would like to commend the professionalism and courage of our officers on that day.

“From a routine deployment, this quickly escalated into an incident which could have caused serious injury to them and the community.

“Our officers ran towards danger, put their own lives at risk to protect those of their colleagues and the public.

“Along with the excellent work of our investigating officers and many other teams and colleagues who supported the initial response and complex investigation, we have ensured the safety of the community and ultimately led to today’s conviction.

“It is incidents such as these which exemplify our police service, delivering exceptional local policing for our communities in Gosport.”