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Amaaz jailed at Liverpool
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 21, was jailed for three and a half years after being convicted of assaulting PC Lydia Ward and PC Ellie Cook and a member of the public at Manchester Airport in July 2024, with the attack taking place in Terminal 2.
“- Published A man who punched two female police officers at Manchester Airport as they tried to arrest him for headbutting a man in a Starbucks cafe has been jailed for three and a half years”
The BBC said Amaaz was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court last year of assaulting PC Lydia Ward, PC Ellie Cook and a Starbucks customer at the airport in July 2024, and it reported that sentencing had been delayed for a re-trial on additional charges involving PC Zachary Marsden.
In a victim statement read to the court, Ward told Amaaz: "What you did was cowardly.", and Judge Neil Flewitt KC said Amaaz was the "aggressor" and that both assaults were "prolonged and unprovoked".
The ITVX report said Amaaz was handed 42 months for assaulting the two officers and a member of the public after a jury at Liverpool Crown Court found him guilty following a trial in July 2025, and it described him as using a "high level of violence" in the confrontation.
Ward and Cook speak
PC Lydia Ward, who has since been promoted to sergeant, told the court she was broken by the incident and said: "You chose to attack a female. You knocked me to the ground with one punch, with so much force you broke my nose."
The BBC reported that Ward’s nose was broken in the attack and that her statement, read by prosecutor Paul Greaney KC, said the trauma of the incident led her to give up being a firearms officer.
PC Ellie Cook also delivered a victim impact statement, and ITVX reported that Cook said the incident made her give up her dream of being a firearms officer, adding: "I used to be happy. I used to be driven. I used to be focused. I am now broken."
The BBC said the fracas outside Terminal 2 was recorded in footage widely circulated on social media, and it reported that CCTV footage was later leaked showing events leading up to the arrest, including Amaaz punching Ward and Cook to the ground.
IOPC probe and aftermath
The BBC reported that the court heard the fracas sparked protests after a short clip showed PC Zachary Marsden appearing to kick Amaaz in the head while he was on the ground, and it said the officer is facing an investigation from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
“Two days of protests, one police officer suspended, suspicions of racism… The video of a person lying on the ground, face down and struck on the head by a law enforcement officer, Tuesday evening, July 23, in Terminal 2 of Manchester Airport, shakes the northwest England city”
Greater Manchester Police chief constable Sir Stephen Watson said the force would fully co-operate with the IOPC investigation, and the BBC quoted him saying officers were responding to "precisely the sort of outrageous criminal behaviour that rightly offends the public".
The BBC also said the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) would not pursue a third trial against Amaaz and his brother, Muhammad Amaad, 26, and it reported that they were formally acquitted by the judge after a jury again failed to reach a decision and he was cleared.
In the same case, the ITVX report said Judge Flewitt criticised the "total lack of remorse" shown by Amaaz and questioned whether online abuse against the officers was linked to Amaaz’s decision to go public early with mobile phone footage of the aftermath without reference to what had gone before.
