A student who allegedly broke a police officer's nose during a violent airport brawl 'told a bare-faced lie' when he claimed he did not realise he was punching a woman, a court has been told.
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, is accused of launching a brutal assault on PC Lydia Ward at Manchester Airport, along with attacks on PCs Ellie Cook and Zachary Marsden. Prosecutors say he 'fabricated' claims of self-defence to justify the violence.
Prosecutor Paul Greaney KC told the jury at Liverpool Crown Court to 'trust their eyes and ears' when considering the evidence. 'The truth will be clear,' he said. Mr Greaney dismissed Amaaz's assertion that he did not realise Ms Ward and Ms Cook were women. 'That cannot exist in the real world we inhabit,' he said. 'There is simply no justification for Amaaz to use any violence at all against Ms Ward, let alone punch her in the face and break her nose.'
The court heard the incident began after an earlier confrontation in a Starbucks café at the airport in July last year. Amaaz is said to have attacked a man named Abdulkareem Ismaeil, an act Mr Greaney claimed was carried out 'out of anger and revenge' after the man allegedly insulted his mother during a flight from Pakistan.
Mr Greaney told the court that police officers were attempting to arrest Amaaz when they approached him in the car park's pay station area. 'They were entitled to use reasonable force to effect an arrest,' he said. Responding to claims that the officers behaved like a 'gang of out-of-control individuals', Mr Greaney said the jury should reject the suggestion.
Judge Neil Flewitt KC reminded jurors that social media coverage of the case had been 'emotive and inaccurate' and warned them to disregard external reports. Mohammed Fahir Amaaz is charged with assaulting PC Zachary Marsden and PC Lydia Ward, causing actual bodily harm, as well as the assault of PC Ellie Cook and of Abdulkareem Ismaeil. His brother, Muhammad Amaad, 26, is accused of assaulting PC Marsden, also causing actual bodily harm.
