Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 21, from Rochdale, has been sentenced to three and a half years in jail after being convicted of assaulting two female police officers and a member of the public at a Starbucks in Manchester airport. The incident took place in July 2024, and Amaaz was convicted of common assault and two counts of actual bodily harm following a four-week trial at Liverpool crown court last year.
Footage of the incident
Mobile phone footage of the brawl was widely shared on social media, showing a young Asian man kicked in the face on the floor by a male police officer, who then appeared to stamp towards his head. Days later, a CCTV clip leaked to the media showed an altercation beforehand with three police officers, who sustained injuries including concussion, a broken nose, and bruising and swelling.
Footage played to the jury showed Amaaz head-butting a member of the public and throwing 10 punches, two elbow strikes, and one kick at the responding police officers, including PC Lydia Ward and PC Ellie Cook. He and his brother, Muhammad Amaad, 26, also from Rochdale, claimed they acted in lawful self-defence or defence of each other against the male police officer, PC Zachary Marsden.
Legal proceedings
Two juries could not reach a decision on charges relating to PC Marsden, and the Crown Prosecution Service last month said it would not seek a third trial against the brothers. In her victim impact statement, Ward said Amaaz had “knocked me to the ground with one punch, with so much force you broke my nose,” describing his actions as “cowardly.” She added, “What angers me is that afterwards, when only part of the footage was out in the public, you played the victim.”
Ward stated that when she and her colleague were attacked, “we were totally blindsided, and I felt like it came from nowhere.” She said, “I never in a million years thought you would have attacked me the way you did. I’m still so confused about it all. It replays in my mind constantly.” She told the court she had given birth last year and said that during “much of my maternity leave, I have had the worry of having to go back to court hanging over me. I have been unable to enjoy the experience as I should have. I’ll never get this time back.”
Impact on officers
Cook said she was left “traumatised” by the attack, during which she was “terrified” and suffered “excruciating” pain. She said Amaaz’s punches had “such power behind them that I thought I was being attacked by three to four people.” She described waking up that morning happy, as she “had recently started a new role at the airport as a firearms officer, and I was loving it.” In a statement read to the court, she said she had taken the job as a stepping stone to a role in the Metropolitan police as a close protection officer.
Cook added, “I don’t think you will ever begin to understand what you have done to me, or my family. I used to be happy. I used to be driven. I used to be focused. I am now broken.” She said she had been left feeling “so angry and frustrated with what happened,” adding, “It hurts and upsets me that you chose to spin the narrative the way you did.” She noted that “everyone was talking about it, and I couldn’t escape,” and she had to move out of “a home where I felt safe and secure.” Cook said she had been signed off work last year with duty-related trauma and decided to give up being a firearms officer, putting her dream of becoming a close protection officer on hold.
