A Rochdale man has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison after being convicted of assaulting two female police officers and a member of the public at a Starbucks in Manchester Airport.
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 21, was found guilty of common assault and two counts of actual bodily harm following a four-week trial at Liverpool Crown Court last year. The offences stem from a violent altercation in July 2024 that sparked widespread public debate after mobile phone footage circulated on social media showing a male police officer kicking and appearing to stamp on a man on the floor.
Days later, leaked CCTV footage revealed the preceding confrontation in which Amaaz and his brother, Muhammad Amaad, 26, clashed with three officers. The footage presented to the jury showed Amaaz head-butting a member of the public and delivering ten punches, two elbow strikes, and a kick against responding officers, including PC Lydia Ward and PC Ellie Cook. Both brothers had argued they acted in lawful self-defence against PC Zachary Marsden.
Two separate juries failed to reach verdicts on the charges relating to PC Marsden, and the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed last month it would not pursue a third trial against the pair.
In powerful victim impact statements read to the court, PC Ward described being knocked unconscious and suffering a broken nose. “What angers me is that afterwards, when only part of the footage was out in the public, you played the victim,” she told Amaaz. She detailed the lasting psychological toll, noting that much of her maternity leave had been overshadowed by the impending court proceedings. “I’ll never get this time back,” she said.
PC Cook, who had recently begun a new role as a firearms officer with aspirations of joining the Metropolitan Police as a close protection officer, said the attack left her “broken.” She described the ferocity of the assault, stating Amaaz struck with such force she believed she was being attacked by multiple people. The trauma forced her to leave her home and ultimately abandon her firearms role, placing her career ambitions on indefinite hold. “I used to be happy. I used to be driven. I used to be focused. I am now broken,” she stated, adding that she had been signed off work with duty-related trauma.
