Mohammed Fahir Amaaz was sentenced to three and a half years in jail for assaulting two police officers at Manchester Airport in July 2024.
Amaaz was sentenced to three and a half years in jail for his role in the incident that went viral online after a short clip, without any wider context, was recorded by a bystander and uploaded to social media where the officers involved became subject to online abuse and condemnation.
Both officers, who each have eight years of experience and service at GMP, used their victim impact statements to tell their attacker about the physical and psychological impact of his violence.
PC Ward said: “As a police officer you know there will be times that you’ll come across conflict and violence but, in my experience, there have always been indications that a situation is escalating, or you would go into a situation expecting high conflict due to various indicators such as alcohol or drugs.
“The day you attacked us was different. We were totally blindsided, and I felt like it came from nowhere. I genuinely thought you would have agreed to come outside for a conversation about what you had done in Starbucks. There were no indications. I never in a million years thought you would have attacked me the way you did. I’m still so confused about it all. It replays in my mind constantly.
“In the moments before you punched me, I remember you looked directly into my eyes. Could you see how scared I was? I was petrified. I just remember hitting the floor and thinking ‘this is it’. I felt instant pain and then I saw the blood. I didn’t know what was going on.
“I watched as you took down my colleagues. I tried to get up onto my feet, I had no choice, I needed to help them. What was going on? The whole situation was so confusing. I have never seen anyone so violent. I have never been so scared. It was utterly terrifying.
“I had to have an operation to my nose, and I am left with a small scar. Every time I look in the mirror, I am forever reminded of what you did to me. This will be a trigger for the rest of my life.”
PC Cook continued: “I feel so angry and frustrated with what happened. It didn’t need to be like that, and I don’t understand why you acted in that way. I remember feeling punches in quick succession and with such power behind them that I thought I was being attacked by 3-4 people. I was terrified. I quickly thought I’m in a bad place and I don’t know how to get out of it.
“The pain was excruciating with each blow, my vision went black, and I was so disorientated. I somehow managed to step back which is when I saw Lydia down. It’s hard to explain what goes through your mind in a situation like that, being attacked and then seeing not only a colleague, but a friend, on the floor bleeding.
“Your first instinct is to help your friend, but you are trained to neutralise the threat. You will never know how hard that is. It goes against all your human instincts. Somehow, I managed to deploy my taser. What would you have done if I hadn’t? When would you have stopped? You wanted to take each of us out and I fear you would have gone to extreme lengths to do that. Why?
“I am traumatised by the incident and what you did that day. I hate that we were judged by everyone. We were just doing a job; we were trying to protect the public.
“It pains me to say this, but because of what you have done to me I have decided to give up being a firearms officer. I just can’t face it at the minute. You have ripped that from me. I hope you never forget, because I know I won’t.”
Chief Constable Sir Stephen Watson QPM said: “This incident began after a man was headbutted in a public place in front of his family. Our officers were responding quickly to precisely the sort of outrageous criminal behaviour that rightly offends the public. In undertaking their duties, officers were met with resistance and violence; followed by online vilification, condemnation and adverse commentary from those who did not have the full facts.
“It is vital that officers get the respect and support they deserve for routinely putting themselves in harm’s way to protect the public. Assaults on police officers are sadly all too common – 35 of my officers are assaulted every week across GM – and such incidents can never be justified.
“I am particularly grateful to those many members of the public who have contacted the force in order to pass on their best wishes to the officers affected.
“Whilst the criminal trial is now concluded, we are cognisant of the ongoing IOPC investigation into the conduct of our officers. We will continue to cooperate fully with this investigation, and we look forward to its conclusion in due course.”
