A SUPERMARKET worker said he was not part of a violent gang who had stockings pulled over their heads, because he was "God fearing" and "didn't wear stockings".

Yesterday, Kingsley Brown, 27, told Basildon Crown Court he had "no idea" how incriminating evidence came to be found inside his car.

He denied playing any part in a machete and knife attack on two men at a house in Hereford Walk, Basildon, last July.

Brown, a Morrisons cashier, told the court it was "a mystery" how a black stocking was found by police in his jacket pocket hours later.

He also said he wasn't sure how a map of Basildon came to end up in the glove compartment of his silver Vauxhall Corsa, or why a set of keys belonging to the burglary victim were in his car boot.

Brown sat in the dock next to his friend and co-accused Oseikpo Agbontaen, 28, from Tottenham.

Both are accused of two counts of aggravated burglary.

On the night of the incident, Brown said he and Agbontaen set off to drive to Southend to look at a gathering of modified cars at about midnight. However, he said they got lost and drove around for hours looking for the town, before being pulled over by armed police on the A127, at around 4am.

They were driving towards London.

Prosecutor Christopher Paxton asked Brown why he answered all questions later put to him by police with the phrase "no comment".

He said: "I had never been arrested before.

"I do not know the law. I couldn't think straight.

"I was confused. Now I realise it was a mistake."

Brown, of Edmonton, London, was also questioned about the stocking which was found to contain a partial match of his DNA.

He told the court: "I don't wear stockings and I don't own any.

"It's probably my girlfriend's. She drives my car sometimes. I don't have any explanation why it would be in my pocket."

When challenged by Mr Paxton his version of events were lies, Brown told the court he was a "God fearing man" and would never lie under oath.

The trial continues.