Brother guilty of attacking two female PCs at Manchester Airport

One of the brothers in the viral Manchester Airport fight has been found guilty of attacking two female police officers.

Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, lashed out at police called to respond to an earlier incident at the Starbucks cafe in the Terminal 2 building.

Amaaz was convicted of assaulting PC Lydia Ward and emergency worker PC Ellie Cook.

He was also found guilty of headbutting a member of the public Abdulkareem Ismaeil, who he had claimed racially abused his mother on an incoming flight.

CCTV footage of the assault was played to jurors at Liverpool Crown Court and shows Amaaz throwing 10 punches, including one to the face of PC Ward that broke her nose and knocked her to the floor.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on allegations that Amaaz and his brother, Muhammad Ahmed, 26, assaulted PC Zachary Marsden causing actual bodily harm.

Prosecutors are now seeking a retrial on these counts.

Amaaz insisted his actions, including the headbutt in Starbucks, were all in self-defense, and told jurors he did not realise two of the police officers he hit were women.

The brothers had travelled to the airport with their young nephew to collect their mother who was due to arrive back on a flight from Qatar on July 23 last year.

Three officers, PC Zachary Marsden and PC Ellie Cook – both armed – and PC Lydia Ward, unarmed, had approached the siblings after a report that a male fitting his description had headbutted a customer at Starbucks cafe in T2 arrivals.

PC Ward said she had ‘never experienced’ such violence towards her in her police service.

The officer, who joined GMP in 2018, said: ‘Never in my whole time in the police service had that level of violence been used on me before. It felt really hard.

‘As I came round, all I could feel was blood pouring out of my nose. I was just thinking he has done something to my nose, face area, I didn’t know what has happened.’

She added: ‘I was absolutely terrified. I had never experienced that level of violence towards me in my life.

‘I didn’t know who was going to come up at me next. I was scared of going after this male again and being punched in the face again.’

Cross-examining Amaaz, who said he didn’t realise PC Ward was a woman when he punched her, Mr Greaney said: ‘The prosecution case is there was absolutely nothing defensive in punching that woman (PC Ward) in the face.

‘It was offensive and unlawful, and you were wholly out of control.’

Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Sir Stephen Watson said: ‘While disappointed that the prosecution case was not fully endorsed, I welcome the findings of the jury in respect of the convicted offender, whose appalling conduct has now been exposed to legitimate public scrutiny.

‘Our officers first approached the man now convicted in order to make an arrest following the unprovoked assault on an innocent man in the presence of his wife and children. They were responding quickly to precisely the sort of outrageous criminal behavior that rightly offends the public.

‘I am particularly grateful to those many members of the public who have contacted the force in order to pass on their best wishes to the officers affected.’

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