Two brothers attacked an armed police officer in an airport brawl using a ‘high level of violence’, a court heard on Monday.
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 21, and his elder brother Muhammad Amaad, 26, rained ‘repeated blows’ on PC Zachary Marsden as he tried to arrest Amaaz in the parking payment area at Terminal Two in Manchester airport.
Amaaz also acted ‘in a cowardly manner’ when he struck unarmed officer PC Lydia Ward by punching her in the face, breaking her nose and also hit PC Ellie Cook, an armed officer with ‘a flurry of blows’.
The fracas in July 2024 was caught on CCTV and the jury was shown the footage yesterday by prosecutor Paul Greaney KC.
The CCTV sequence showed how violence flared when the officers tried to arrest Amaaz and showed the punch that broke PC Ward’s nose.
Jurors also saw Amaaz being wrestled to the floor after aiming punches at PC Cook and a kick aimed by PC Marsden at the head of Amaaz when the defendant was on the floor.
Mr Greaney said that in response to having been assaulted, PC Marsden kicked Amaaz to the face and then brought his foot down towards the top of his head ‘in what looks like a stamping motion.’
He told the jury: ‘Those actions look rather shocking in the cold light of day, but we suggest they need to be judged in the context of the very serious level of threat posed by the defendants to an officer who was concerned that his firearm might be taken from him at an international airport.
‘In any event, those actions all occurred after the violence of the defendants. The position of the prosecution is that they are logically entirely irrelevant to the lawfulness of the conduct of Amaaz and Amaad.’
The court heard on Monday that Amaaz was found guilty at a trial last year of assaulting the two women police officers.
He was also found guilty of an assault on Qatari citizen Abdulkareem Ismaeil in a Starbucks cafe minutes before the incident in the parking payment area.
The jury heard that the brothers had gone to the airport to meet their mother on a flight from Pakistan via Qatar and ‘something had happened’ between the mother and Mr Ismaeil which had made her unhappy.
It was when the mother pointed out Mr Ismaeil in the cafe that Amaaz had confronted him and headbutted him in the face and struck further blows.
The jury heard that the assaults on PCs Cook and Ward and the alleged assault on PC Marsden happened after they tried to arrest Amaaz for the attack on Mr Ismaeil.
The jury heard that Amaaz still believes the jury in the first trial was wrong to convict him and claims he was acting in lawful self-defence.
The jury in the first trial was unable to reach a verdict on both brothers over the alleged assault on PC Marsden.
At a retrial Monday, Amaaz also claimed that he was acting in self-defence when he struck PC Marsden.
Muhammad Amaad claims he was acting in defence of his brother and both men, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, pleaded not guilty to assaulting PC Marsden, causing him actual bodily harm.
Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, told the jury: ‘This is not a complicated case. The events were captured on CCTV and body-worn cameras of the police officers.
‘You will be able to see with your own eyes what happened. What occurred is plain to see beyond any sensible argument.
‘The defendants say the violence they used against PC Marsden was lawful because they were acting in self-defence or in defence of each other.
‘Indeed, Amaaz goes further and claims that he was acting lawfully throughout and that the jury in the first trial was wrong.
‘You have to decide whether you are sure that it may be they were acting in self-defence when they delivered repeated blows to PC Marsden.
‘Our prediction is that you will readily conclude that the defendants were not acting in lawful self-defence and that their conduct was unlawful.’
Mr Greaney told the jury that the two brothers walked from Starbucks to the pay station, a journey of just two minutes.
The three police officers went to the parking pay station to arrest Amaaz and ‘violence erupted quickly’, he said.
The jury heard that PC Marsden and PC Cook were armed with semi-automatic Glock 17 pistols and entered the pay station area at 8.28pm.
Mr Greaney said: ‘Over the course of the next 30 seconds, Amaaz delivered no fewer than 12 blows (a kick, elbow strikes and punches) to the three officers, breaking PC Ward’s nose and causing injuries to the other two.
‘Amaad delivered repeated blows with his fists to PC Marsden and, as you will see, used a high level of violence.’
Mr Greaney said the conviction of Amaaz in the first trial proved that he acted offensively and not defensively.
He added: ‘In the environment of a courtroom, it is difficult to get a sense of how seriously the officers perceived the threat posed by the two defendants to be.
‘From the body-worn camera footage, we get a real sense of how fearful the officers involved in this violence had been.’
The trial continues.
