Manchester Airport assault trial as punched feminine officer remembers ‘blood’ and worry
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz and Muhammad Amaad got into a fight with police following an earlier ‘disagreement’ their mother had with another passenger
A female police officer remembers ‘seeing blood’ and how ‘everything went black’ after being punched during a Manchester Airport fight two years ago.
PC Lydia Ward’s face was bloodied and she suffered a broken nose after being struck by Mohammed Fahir Amaaz.
Manchester Evening News reports Mr Amaaz’s lawyer claimed that he was acting in self-defence, a claim which PC Ward denied. The defendant was convicted of assaulting unarmed officer PC Ward at a previous trial.
He was also convicted of assaulting a member of the public at a branch of Starbucks in terminal two, and of assaulting another female officer, PC Ellie Cook.
Mr Amaaz, 21, and his brother, Muhammad Amaad, 26, both from Rochdale, are now on trial accused of assaulting armed officer PC Zachary Marsden during the same incident. They deny the charge. The siblings had earlier attended the airport to pick up their mother.
The younger sibling assaulted a man in a branch of Starbucks at the airport, after his mother had ‘some form of disagreement’ on a flight back to the UK from Pakistan via Qatar, Liverpool Crown Court has heard.
Mr Amaaz then assaulted three police officers in a pay station at terminal two, after they were called following the incident on July 23, 2024, a jury was told.
PC Cook, who was also armed, suffered ‘relatively minor injuries’. Mr Amaaz and Mr Amaad are on trial accused of assaulting PC Marsden during the incident at the pay station. They deny the single charge.
PC Marsden was said to have suffered a ‘post-concussion syndrome’, which is said to have included a ‘severe headache for three days’, and episodes of ‘dizziness’ and ‘forgetfulness,’ and difficulties in talking and also bruising and swelling. During the fracas, PC Marsden kicked Mr Amaaz to the face and brought his foot down to his head in a ‘stamping motion’, jurors have heard.
Under questioning by junior prosecution barrister Adam Birkby, PC Ward told jurors that when she and her two colleagues entered the pay station area to look for the suspect from the Starbucks incident, she assumed that Mr Amaaz was on his own.
She told the jury that she ‘took hold of’ Mr Amaaz’s right arm, as PC Marsden took hold of his left arm. The officer said her intention was to ‘affect the arrest’ and to put handcuffs on him.
PC Ward said she couldn’t recall whether she said anything. “Things just escalated very quickly,” she said. She claimed that Mr Amaaz ‘tensed up’.
The officer told the jury: “I felt like his arm was becoming stiff as if he was going to resist. It was a sign of resistance.” He claimed that a man dressed in grey, Mr Amaad was ‘interfering’.
She said: “He was obstructing, he must have come over because they [her colleagues] were trying to get him away. He was in the way of us making that arrest.”
PC Ward said that she was ‘still trying to secure the man in blue’ [Mr Amaaz] while her colleagues’ attention was drawn to a man in grey [Mr Amaad]. The officer said she saw Mr Amaaz ‘booting’ PC Marsden.
She said he was kicking PC Marsden with ‘great force’, in a ‘really violent’ way. “It was at that point I was very scared for all of us,” she said. “I was doing everything I could to pull him off and stop Zac [PC Marsden] getting hurt.
“As I have turned he has just then punched me straight to the face. It was really forceful. I have never been punched in my life.
“I fell backwards. Everything went black. I just remember coming around and I was really dizzy. I could just see blood start to come out of my nose. I don’t know if it was coming out of my nose, I just saw blood basically.
“I was scared because these males still weren’t secure. It was still all ongoing. I was scared I was going to get assaulted again. I remember just pressing my emergency button hoping some other cops were on their way to back us up.”
PC Ward told the jury that she used her PAVA spray after two members of the public were behaving in a ‘hostile’ way towards her. She said she had been ‘screaming’ at them to ‘get back’, but they did not comply with orders.
“I was terrified I was going to get attacked again,” she said. Jurors heard that at 11.45pm that night she attended hospital and was found to have suffered a broken nose. She later underwent surgery.
Under cross-examination by Danielle Buckett, junior defence counsel for Mr Amaaz, PC Ward denied suggestions that there was a ‘fundamental failure’ in gathering intelligence surrounding the incident in Starbucks, and that there was a ‘failure in assessing risk’.
PC Ward said she disagreed with the claim that there had been a ‘failure to form a proper strategy’ when she and her colleagues went to arrest Mr Amaaz at the car park pay station. “It was a dynamic job, we have a male suspect we need to arrest him, that’s it simply,” the officer said.
PC Ward said she didn’t tell Mr Amaaz he was under arrest as her colleague PC Marsden was going ‘to do the arrest’. “To be fair I don’t think there was a chance to tell him he was under arrest, because the situation escalated so quickly,” PC Ward said.
Ms Buckett alleged that PC Ward ‘punched Mr Amaaz in the throat’. “Not that I can remember, I didn’t punch anybody,” she said. “It looks like I’m trying to get him off my colleague.”
After being shown CCTV footage of the incident, PC Ward added: “I stand by my answer that I didn’t punch him.” Ms Buckett alleged that the punch Mr Amaaz delivered which broke PC Ward’s nose was in self-defence.
“I don’t think it was in self-defence, I think he assaulted me,” she replied. “I was trying to get him off my colleague that he was assaulting.”
PC Ward said she didn’t see PC Marsden kick Mr Amaaz in the head, or stamp on him. Asked if she stood by her answer after jurors had been shown footage from the pay station, the officer said: “I can’t remember it, I’ve just been punched in the face.”
Mr Amaaz and Mr Amaad, both of Tarnside Close, Rochdale, deny assaulting PC Marsden, occasioning him actual bodily harm.
Proceeding
Ensure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as a Preferred Source in your Google search settings.
