One of the brothers accused of assaulting a group of police officers at Manchester Airport last year has come up with the perfect excuse for why he so viciously attacked a pair of female officers: he didn’t know they were women.
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, is accused of assaulting the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) officers as they attempted to arrest him in the Terminal 2 car park after he had headbutted a guy at Starbucks. Here’s full footage of the incident that was released the other week:
BREAKING NEWS; Footage seen for 1st time of the FULL attack on THREE Armed GMP Officers at Manchester Airport was shown to Jury today; I have followed the hearing all day & will post a summary later including WHY an officer used his foot on a suspect👇🤷♂️pic.twitter.com/O2rUYDB5Bm
— Norman Brennan (@NormanBrennan) July 7, 2025
Amaaz told Liverpool Crown Court that he was acting in self-defence and feared he would be “battered” to death by the police.
On his assault on the female officers specifically, prosecutor Paul Greaney KC said: “You knew full well you were punching a woman.”
Amaaz replied: “I didn’t know that at this stage.”
Greaney noted CCTV footage that showed Amaaz strike PC Ellie Cook with his elbow and knock her cap off, and told him: “She has got long blonde hair in a ponytail, I ask you to acknowledge that you knew you were delivering blows to the face of a woman?”
Greaney also noted that, as per the footage, Amaaz was looking directly at PC Lydia Ward when he punched her full-on in the face and broke her nose.
“Can I invite you to acknowledge that you knew obviously she was a woman,” he said, “a woman with long red hair?”
Amaaz responded: “Not at this moment, no. This has happened so quickly. It is a matter of seconds.”
Greaney then asked whether Amaaz believed the female officers were attempting to murder him, to which Amaaz said: “A police officer had struck me I thought.”
“I was trying to protect myself… She [PC Ward] was part of that group. I believed PC Marsden tried to kill me.”
Well, I guess only he knows for sure. The bodycam footage in the aftermath of the incident is especially shocking, with PC Lydia Ward having a complete meltdown after being punched in the face:
This video of PC Lydia Ward, after being punched at Manchester airport, raises serious questions regarding women being front line police officers.
Yes, it was a violent and despicable attack, but doesn’t this highlight major flaws in our policing ability?
https://t.co/nDQ6vGslRv— White Wolf (@whitewolftracks) July 11, 2025
Amaaz denies three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm to the three police officers and one count of assault to Abdulkareem Ismaeil (the customer at Starbucks). Meanwhile, his brother Amaad denies one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm to PC Marsden. Surely they’ll both have the book thrown at them by the time it’s over.
The trial continues…
For the police officer who shot a teenager eating McDonald’s in his car for no good reason at all, click HERE.
