A police officer who was punched in the face and had her nose broken during an assault at Manchester Airport has called on her attacker to show remorse.
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 21, was on Friday jailed for three-and-a-half years at Liverpool Crown Court, having been convicted last year of assaulting PC Lydia Ward, causing her actual bodily harm.
The court had heard how PC Ward suffered a broken nose, as police bodycam footage showed her bloodied and sobbing, while Amaaz knocked her colleague PC Ellie Cook to the ground with a series of elbows and punches during the attack in July 2024.
Recalling the incident, Ms Ward, 29, told The Times: “I remember getting up [after being punched]. I was in a state of panic. I was in so much pain. I thought, ‘Oh my God, there’s people everywhere’,” she said.
“There were two men shouting and being aggressive. People were filming us. Laughing at us. It felt like such a hostile environment.
“There was a lot of noise going on. One of the men said something, laughing and being abusive. I thought they were all one group at the time but apparently they weren’t. It felt like we’d been ambushed.”
“I don’t expect the public to get involved [in such an altercation] because it’s scary and people want to go about their business and don’t want to be involved in situations, but most of the time people do help. This felt like an ambush and very anti-police, very much against us.”
Widely shared mobile phone footage of the incident sparked protests as it showed a young Asian male kicked in the face on the floor by a male police officer who then appeared to stamp towards his head.
Days later a CCTV clip leaked to the Manchester Evening News revealed that beforehand a number of punches were thrown towards the male firearms officer and his two female colleagues.
Ms Ward was taken to hospital following the incident and was told she would require nose realignment surgery.
She felt “silenced” while she was recovering from her injury due to the comments on social media, she said.
“People making videos giving their opinions on it, people commenting and calling it racist and police brutality.
“I thought: ‘That’s not the full story. I’m the one lying in bed on my back with a broken nose, barely able to breathe, watching all this stuff making out we were the bad guys.’”
Comments online called into question Ms Ward’s ability to do her job because of her gender. “People were saying ‘She’s useless’,” she added.
PC Ward has since been promoted to sergeant and she know works in an investigative role in Bolton.
She said there has been no remorse from Amaaz for attacking her.
“I’ve not seen any,” she said. “If you do something wrong there should be some element of saying sorry and some remorse.
“Even if you think you’re partially not to blame for it all, you need to take some responsibility for some of your actions. That’s how I feel about that situation.”
Amaaz was also found guilty at Liverpool Crown Court of assaulting PC Ward’s Greater Manchester Police (GMP) colleague Pc Cook and an earlier assault on a member of the public at a nearby Starbucks café.
The officers had responded to reports that a male fitting Amaaz’s description had headbutted the Starbucks customer, Abdulkareem Ismaeil, minutes earlier on 23 July 2024.
Prosecutors said Amaaz resisted their attempts to take him outside and he went on to use a “high level of violence”.
Two juries could not reach a verdict over a separate allegation that Amaaz also caused actual bodily harm to firearms officer PC Zachary Marsden
Last month, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said it would not pursue a third trial against Amaaz and his brother, Muhammad Amaad, 26, who faced a single count of assaulting PC Marsden, and they were formally acquitted by the judge.
The defendants, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, claimed they acted in lawful self-defence, or in defence of the other, during the fracas.
In December 2024 the CPS announced no police officer would face charges over the incident.
An investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) remains ongoing into allegations that Pc Marsden and second officer used excessive force, the court heard.
However, both PC Ward and PC Cook were only being treated as witnesses.
