Man guilty of Manchester Airport attack on police officers

A man has been found guilty of attacking two female police officers during a large violent disturbance at Manchester Airport.

Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, was charged with assaulting the Greater Manchester Police officers during the fracas on 23 July last year, with a video of the incident being widely shared on social media.

Following a three-week trial at Liverpool Crown Court, Amaaz was convicted of assaulting PC Lydia Ward, causing actual bodily harm, and the assault of emergency worker PC Ellie Cook.

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

Amaaz was also found guilty of an earlier assault of a member of the public, Abdulkareem Ismaeil, at a Starbucks cafe in the airport's arrivals area earlier in the day.

The court heard how PC Zachary Marsden, PC Lydia Ward and PC Ellie Cook had entered the airport car park's pay station area following reports of a male fitting Amaaz's description headbutting a member of the public.

Prosecutors said Amaaz resisted as he was grabbed from behind at a car park ticket machine, before the violence broke out.

CCTV footage of the officers being assaulted was played to jurors at the brothers' trial.

The court heard PC Ward suffered a broken nose in the incident, during which she remembered "falling on the floor and everything went black" after a "really forceful" blow to her face.

PC Ward said: "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.

"I was terrified to be honest. I was absolutely terrified. I had never experienced that level of violence towards me in my life."

Mike Peake, chairman of the Greater Manchester Police Federation, said Amaaz's conviction showed the "worst side of police work our officers are faced with".

"Police officers in Manchester work in a difficult, dangerous, and dynamic world where there is no such thing as a routine incident. They deserve support in that work from the public and politicians," he said.

"[Thirty-five] officers are assaulted in Greater Manchester Police every week. We are bloodied and we are bruised.

"We have been supporting the officers concerned in the incident at Manchester Airport last summer since it occurred. And as a federation we will continue to do so."