Man jailed for assaulting Manchester Airport officers and customer

Mohammed Fahir Amaaz was jailed for three years and six months after attacking two Greater Manchester Police officers and a Starbucks customer in Terminal 2 at Manchester Airport. The violence, caught on CCTV, unfolded in a public area and in front of young children, adding a sharp reminder of the risks facing police and other public-facing workers in high-traffic transport hubs.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that Amaaz assaulted PC Lydia Ward, PC Ellie Cook and Abdulkareem Ismaeil on 23 July 2024, after officers responded to a report of a headbutt in the airport Starbucks area. PC Ward, an unarmed officer, suffered a broken nose, while PC Cook, an armed officer, sustained an injured jaw. Amaaz, from Rochdale, was later convicted of common assault and two counts of actual bodily harm.

CCTV footage showed Amaaz throwing 10 punches, two elbow strikes and one kick. Police said the incident involved no evidence of prior threatening or unacceptable behaviour by Ismaeil, despite claims made during the trial. The officers involved, PC Ward and PC Cook, each had eight years of service with Greater Manchester Police.

The case drew wider attention after a short clip was posted online by a bystander, stripping away the broader sequence of events and prompting abuse directed at the officers. Greater Manchester Police said the footage circulated without the context of the initial call to the airport Starbucks area and the subsequent assault on officers carrying out their duties in a crowded public space.

During sentencing, PC Ward told Amaaz he had played the victim after the footage was released online and said he had shown no remorse. Sir Stephen Watson, the Greater Manchester Police chief constable, welcomed the conviction and said the force would support any retrial on remaining counts involving male firearms officer PC Zachary Marsden, after jurors were unable to reach a verdict on those charges.

The sentence closes one part of a case that has become central to a wider discussion about airport policing, officer safety and the consequences of assaults on staff working in front-line public settings. Manchester Airport, one of the country’s busiest transport hubs, remains a place where fast-moving confrontations can quickly spill into serious violence, with police now facing both the physical danger of those incidents and the fallout when partial video spreads online.