I didn't know police officers I was punching were women, student tells Manchester Airport brawl trial
A jury has been shown CCTV of Mohammed Fahir Amaaz punching unarmed officer Lydia Ward in the face, breaking her nose and leaving her covered in blood.
The trial at Liverpool crown court has also been shown CCTV of Amaaz, 20, being kicked in the head and stamped on by armed officer Zachary Marsden in the brawl at Terminal Two in Manchester airport last July.
Amaaz told the court yesterday that the 12 blows he rained on three separate police officers in the confrontation were 'defensive and not offensive' and were only delivered to protect himself.
He was cross examined by Paul Greaney, KC, for the prosecution who played him the CCTV footage from the airport terminal, which went viral on the internet.
Mr Greaney said: 'Before you struck a single blow, you knew these were police officers.'
Amaaz replied: 'Police officers who were attacking me and my brother again and again, trying to kill us. This lunatic booted me in the head and stamped on me.
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz is seen arriving at Liverpool Crown Court at the start of his trial
'If that was not enough he elbowed my mother in the face with a Taser and if that was not enough , he punched my brother in the back of the head, twice. This man was attempting to kill us.'
'I was lying on the floor and I was vulnerable.'
Mr Greaney said the kick and the stamp came after Amaaz had struck 12 blows and could not be used to ' justify ' the violence he used.
Mr Greaney said: 'All the violence was completely offensive, not defensive, and unlawful. You were completely out of control.'
Amaaz replied: 'I was scared s***less. These officers were attacking us again and again. They would not stop.'
Mr Greaney told Amaaz that it was ' glaringly obvious ' that PC Ward was a woman when he hit her in the face. The CCTV showed Amaaz looking straight in her face and she had long red hair and was not wearing a cap.
Amaaz replied: 'Not at that moment, no. I had seen my brother being punched in the face. I felt a strike to my throat and it was instinct to re act at the same time. It all happened so quick, it was a matter of seconds.'
Mr Greaney said: 'You punched her in the face.'
Amaaz replied: 'I did not know where the punch was going. It was a reaction.This officer had punched me in the throat. I was trying the defend myself.'
A trial at Liverpool Crown Court has been shown CCTV footage of Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, swinging a punch at Manchester Airport - with PC Lydia Ward hit in the nose
He said that Ward and her colleagues PC Ellie Cook and PC Marsden were 'part of the group' who were trying to kill him.
Amaaz said: 'She was part of that group. I believe PC Marsden was trying to kill me.'
Mr Greaney said: 'You have punched a female police officer in the face. You have broken her nose. There was nothing defensive about punching a woman. You were wholly out of control.'
Amaaz replied: 'At this point I was scared. These officers were attacking us for no reason. They had not spoken to us and they had not spoken to each other.'
He said that he did not realise it was a police officer who first grabbed hold of him at the ticket machine inside the pay station.
He said: 'They could have simply said 'you are detained' or 'you are under arrest' I have never been in that type of situation.
'I was forced into that situation. I was protecting me and my brother when this officer punched me in the face several times.'
Mr Greaney said: 'You knew he was a police officer almost from the start and you knew why they were there.'
Amaaz said: 'They did not give me a chance to think about anything. If they wanted to detain me, they could have told me and I would have let them do what they had to do. They did not give me a second to think about anything or to say anything.'
The court has been told that the brawl was sparked by an altercation between the brothers and a plane passenger called Abdulkareem Ismaeil over an alleged insult to the brothers' mother.
Amaaz accepted that Mr Ismaeil had 'not laid a finger on him ' but insisted that he was threatening him and saying, 'I will f***ing kill you.'
He denied that he had acted 'out of anger and revenge' when he head butted Mr Ismaeil in front of his wife and two children in the Starbucks at Terminal Two.
Amaaz said he had wanted to get Mr Ismaeil to apologise to his mother, who claimed he had called her 'a P*** bitch' and had pushed his luggage trolley into her legs.
He said: 'I did not want to escalate it. I put it to him what my Mum had told me and said to him if it was true could he please apologise.'
'He said 'who are you, I will smash you. I will f***ing kill you.' The CCTV shows that I am stood on the spot and he stepped toward me. I was upset about about what had been done to my mother.'
Amaaz said: 'It was instinctive. He was closing me down and it was in my mind to get this man away.'
Mr Greaney said the CCTV showed Amaaz, who is left handed, swing a left had punch at Mr Ismaeil out of ' anger and revenge.'
He said said: 'You delivered a forceful head butt to the face of Mr Ismaeil. As a matter of fact that man you head butted, that person was no threat to you and you didn't believe for a moment he was a threat to you and you were acting out of revenge and that's the truth.'
Amaaz said: 'I swung a punch. I do not know if it connected. It was my intention to get this man away from me. He was shouting threats at me and threatening to kill me and smash me. He got so close I could feel his spit on my face.
'I thought that in a second, he was going to attack me. I was shocked. I was just protecting myself.'
Amaaz denies one charge of assault by beating, two charges of assault causing actual bodily harm and one charge of assault by beating of a police officer acting as an emergency worker.
His elder brother Muhammed Amaad, 26, is accused of one charge of assault causing actual bodily harm on PC Marsden.
The brothers from Rochdale, Greater Manchester claim they were acting in self defence.
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