Man accused of assaulting police at Manchester Airport 'headbutted' another traveller, court hears
The first incident took place at a Starbucks at terminal two of the airport and led to police being called, Liverpool Crown Court heard.
When officers arrived, they traced brothers Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, and Muhammad Amaad, 26, who were leaving the airport after picking up their mother.
Police arrived to arrest the pair as they went to pay for parking. But the brothers are alleged to have assaulted three officers after using a "high level of violence" to resist arrest.
The jury has been shown CCTV of both incidents.
The siblings, from Rochdale in Greater Manchester, deny the allegations on 23 July last year and claim self-defence.
Traveller Abdulkareem Ismaeil and Amaaz's mother were on the same flight, on which "something happened" that upset her, the jury heard.
Later, while leaving the airport with his wife and three young children, he stopped at Starbucks, where the defendant's mother pointed him out to her sons.
The manager of the Starbucks, Cameron Cartledge, told the court he heard "raised voices" and went to the door, where he saw a man - identified as Amaaz - "quite close" to Mr Ismaeil and "shouting at him".
Mr Cartledge said the shouting was in a foreign language he did not understand.
"At the time of the arguing he was very close to him, like in his face," he said.
"Blue track-suit man seemed quite aggressive, obviously annoyed about something, I don't know what. Blue track-suit man was aggressively shouting.
"Because his body language, his tone of voice was quite aggressive."
Mr Cartledge continued: "There was arguing, I don't know what was being said, then blue track-suit man headbutted the man we see in the black.
"He got him in the face. It did not look like it hurt Mr Ismaeil much but it was forceful enough to make him stagger back into the counter."
Amaaz then threw two punches, Mr Cartledge said, adding that he thought they landed on Mr Ismaeil's shoulder. The two men were then split up, he added.
When asked why he called the police, the witness replied: "Well, he had just assaulted him."
Amaaz denies one count of assault to Mr Ismaeil and three counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm to three police officers: PC Zachary Marsden, PC Ellie Cook and PC Lydia Ward.
His brother, Amaad, denies one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm to PC Marsden.
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Telegraph
33 minutes ago
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I almost died in the London bombings. I looked down and saw that half my body was gone
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She picked up a paper, filled with jubilant articles about the Olympics, and pondered buying tickets for the opening ceremony. Then the bomb went off. 'I don't remember a noise, or a big bang. What I do remember is a flash of light, and it was a light that was all-consuming for a second. I remember thinking, 'What the hell is going on?'' Shehzad Tanweer, a 22-year-old Muslim extremist from the Leeds suburb of Beeston, had detonated a bomb hidden in a rucksack, as part of a coordinated attack on London that killed 52 people and injured hundreds more. Disorientated, Martine found herself surrounded by mangled metal and debris from the blast. She was yet to realise she had lost both her legs. 'I just remember, in the beginning, trying to get up, and I thought, 'Why can't I get up?'' Next to her were two survivors: Andrew Brown, electrocuted by live wires, and Kira Mason, with a severed arm. Seven passengers in the carriage had died, along with Tanweer. 'The screams were awful. I can't really describe what they were really like, and then people started to come past. It must have been the station master. He was talking to me through this hole. 'I had no concept of time. I just have memories; this gentleman talking to me, saying, 'It's OK, it's OK'. Everyone's just shouting, 'Help! Help!' 'I remember trying to pull myself out, and then seeing this figure coming up. This was my guardian angel, Liz Kenworthy. I could see Liz, long blonde hair and blue eyes, coming towards me.' Kenworthy was an off-duty police officer, and immediately got to work tending to both Andrew and Martine, gathering anything to use as a tourniquet to stem the bleeding. 'I remember one tourniquet was a belt,' recalls Martine, 'and I remember pulling this belt and thinking I felt like [a character] out of a John Wayne Western, like I used to watch with my dad on Sunday afternoon. And all I kept saying to Liz was, 'Please tell my mum and dad I'm OK.' The irony was that I wasn't OK.' 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The lights flickered on and off, and then there was a call on the intercom for anyone medically trained. Thinking that perhaps there had been a collision, Liz made her way through the carriages towards the front of the train. 'The next carriage was very different. There was darkness, there was newspaper blowing around. People injured and covered in dirt started coming towards me.' Reasoning that these were the walking wounded and that there were likely to be more seriously injured passengers further on, she carried on walking through the carriages. Finally, she reached the carriage where the bomb had detonated. 'The cables were coming out of the roof like spaghetti, the train had been disembowelled – the floor was ripped up, and there were bodies. I saw a human back underneath, down below my feet, and a big sheet of metal, which I had to stand on. The body down in the hole was [beyond saving], so I just had to ignore it.' 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Telegraph
33 minutes ago
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Should we be concerned about multiple tiers of British justice?
Stories about 'two-tier' policing and justice have become a frequent feature in the news. Just this week, there's been yet another 'two-tier' policing row over a pro-Palestine protestor dressed as a holocaust concentration camp inmate and Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, no less, has said allegations of 'two-tier' justice are 'disgusting '. Then there's the ongoing reports about Lucy Connolly. She was sentenced to 31 months in prison for an ill-judged post on X about asylum seekers (which she later deleted). The appeal to reduce her sentence failed, but when serious offences receive lesser sentencing, there are legitimate grounds for concern. Everyone must be treated equally before the law, but public perception as to whether this remains the case is being harmed and presents a crisis of trust in our institutions. So, is the Attorney General wrong to express his criticism of those speaking up on the status quo? 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A hierarchical hate crime policy for Britain's faith groups, plus allegations of two-tier policing since October 7, give rise to further questions about impartiality. The existing policing approach reflects that rather than operating on a colour-blind or community-blind basis, the attempt was made by police to compensate for the allegation stemming from the Macpherson inquiry of 'institutional racism' – by policing different communities in different ways. Although this is well intentioned, it is not without consequence. The Government have pushed back on this framing. In fact in April, the Home Affairs Committee Inquiry into the 2024 riots referred to 'unsubstantiated and disgraceful claims of 'two-tier policing''. 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Daily Mail
41 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Shopkeeper who groomed teenage girl with vodka and vapes before sexually assaulting her is jailed for 10 years
A shopkeeper who groomed a teenage girl with vodka and vapes before blocking the door with a sofa so he could sexually assault her as been jailed for 10 years. Daniel Hashmi was found guilty of six offences against the same child, including attempted rape, following a trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court. The 49-year-old, of Audley Road, Levenshulme, Manchester, was sentenced today to a decade behind bars. He will additionally have to sign the sex offender's register for life, as well as being given a restraining order and lifelong sexual harm protection order. Hashmi was arrested in December 2024 after the sister of a friend reported her suspicions to the police. It was established the offences had taken place in Hashmi's business premises on Wellington Road South, Stockport, between November and December last year. Hashimi had bought vodka and vapes for the victim, on one occasion blocking the door in a back room to the shop with a sofa to prevent her leaving before sexually assaulting her. He denied the offences but was found guilty of three counts of sexual assault on a female, two counts of attempted rape, and assault by penetration after a trial. Speaking in court, the victim said: 'I thought I could trust him. He is an adult and they are meant to be protectors, but after this I will never trust anyone again. 'This has affected me more than anyone will ever know - I feel betrayed and completely let down. 'He has taken away the most important things that I will never get back - I feel used and that's the worst thing.' Detective Constable Ben Swapp, of Stockport's Complex Safeguarding Team, said: 'The girl and her family have shown enormous courage, and we will continue to support them. 'Aspire social workers and Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) are working with the victim to help in rebuilding her life. 'GMP's Stockport Complex Safeguarding Team is a multi-agency team focused on protecting vulnerable children and young people from exploitation and harm. 'This team, which includes police officers, social workers, and other professionals, works to identify, assess, and respond to safeguarding concerns, particularly those related to child exploitation. 'We are absolutely committed to removing offenders like Hashimi from the streets, as the danger he poses to society, and particularly to children, is significant. 'Hopefully today's sentence and our investigation will give victims the confidence to report these types of crimes and trust us to investigate them thoroughly to bring the perpetrators to justice.'
