Manchester Airport brawl followed assault at Starbucks, jury hears

A brawl filmed at Manchester airport last summer followed an attack on a member of the public at Starbucks, a jury has heard.

Brothers Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, and Muhammad Amaad, 26, are said to have used a "high level of violence" in assaulting three police officers in Terminal 2 on July 23.

Police were at the airport responding to an earlier incident at the Starbucks cafe where Amaaz headbutted a man and punched him, Liverpool Crown Court heard. Both brothers, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, deny the allegations.

Opening the prosecution case on Friday, Paul Greaney KC said police later traced the brothers at the terminal's car park payment area.

Three officers, PC Zachary Marsden and PC Ellie Cook - both armed - and PC Lydia Ward, unarmed, approached the defendants, he said.

Mr Greaney went on: "The officers attempted to move Mohammed Fahir Amaaz away from a payment machine in order to arrest him, but he resisted, and his brother Muhammad Amaad intervened."

He said they both assaulted PC Marsden.

"In the moments that followed, the first defendant also assaulted PC Cook and then PC Ward too, breaking her nose," Mr Greaney said.

"The defendants used a high level of violence."

Amaaz is alleged to have assaulted PC Marsden and PC Ward, causing them actual bodily harm.

He is also accused of the assault of PC Cook and the earlier assault of Abdulkareem Ismaeil at Starbucks.

Amaad, 26, is alleged to have assaulted PC Marsden, causing actual bodily harm.

Mr Greaney said the defendants had travelled to the airport with their young nephew to collect their mother who was due to arrive back on a flight from Qatar.

He said it was clear that "something happened" involving Abdulkareem Ismaeil, who was on the same flight as the pair's mother, that "made [her] unhappy".

She pointed out Mr Ismaeil, who was in Starbucks with his family, to her sons as they were walking through the terminal.

"At just after 8.20pm, the defendants entered Starbucks and confronted Abdulkareem Ismaei," Mr Greaney said.

"During that confrontation, Mohammed Fahir Amaaz delivered a headbutt to the face of Abdulkareem Ismaeil and punched him, then attempted to deliver other blows, all in front of a number of children.

"The prosecution case is that this was obviously unlawful conduct."

Mr Greaney told jurors the prosecution's position was this was "not a complicated case" as the events were captured on CCTV.

"So you will not have to depend only on the recollections of witnesses. You will also be able to see with your own eyes what happened," he said.

Mr Greaney said the defendants would say "that at all stages they were acting in lawful self-defence or in defence of the other".

"Our prediction is that you will readily conclude that the defendants were not acting in lawful self-defence and that their conduct was unlawful," he added.