Man who punched female police officers at Manchester Airport jailed

A man who punched two female police officers who were trying to arrest him for headbutting a man in a Starbucks cafe at Manchester Airport was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 21, of Rochdale, was convicted at Liverpool Crown Court last year of assaulting PC Lydia Ward, PC Ellie Cook and a Starbucks customer at the airport in July 2024.

Sentencing was adjourned for a retrial due to additional charges that Amaaz had also assaulted a male police officer (PC Zachary Marsden), but the jury again failed to reach a verdict and he was acquitted.

Ward, whose nose was broken in the attack, had previously said in his statement to the court, “What you did was cowardly.”

Sentencing, Judge Neil Flewitt KC told Amaaz he was the “aggressor” and said both attacks were “prolonged and unprovoked”.

The court heard the fights outside Terminal 2 were captured in footage that was widely circulated on social media.