09-07-2025
Armed police officer filmed kicking suspect in the head in Manchester Airport brawl denies aiming another stamp at him
An armed police officer who was filmed kicking a suspect in the head during an airport brawl has denied aiming a further stamp on him.
Zachary Marsden told a court he was trying to clamp his radio wire with his foot when near the head of suspect Mohammed Fahir Amaaz as he lay on the floor.
A jury at Liverpool Crown Court was shown CCTV footage of the kick and stamp to the head of Amaaz at Terminal Two of Manchester airport in July last year.
Firearms officer Mr Marsden has admitted kicking suspect Amaaz, 20, in the head during the fracas at the pay station in Terminal Two at Manchester airport last July.
The attempted arrest sparked a brawl involving Amaaz, his brother Muhammed Amaad, 26, and three officers which was filmed and went viral on the internet.
Amaaz denies one charge of assault by beating, two charges of assault causing actual bodily harm and one charge of assault by beating of a police officer acting as an emergency worker.
Amaad is accused of one charge of assault causing actual bodily harm on PC Marsden.
The brothers, from Rochdale in Greater Manchester, say they were acting in self defence.
PC Marsden has spent his third day in the witness box where he was further cross-examined by Imran Khan KC, who is representing Amaaz.
He denied Mr Khan's suggestion that he had stamped on Amaaz's head because 'the red mist had fallen and you had lost control'.
Mr Marsden said he was trying to hook the wire of his radio, which was dangling from his body, around his foot to create ' a clamp ' because he feared Amaaz could grab the device and pull him to the floor.
He said: 'I was not aiming for his head - I was aiming for the wire.
'I am not justifying a stamp to the head - it was never my intention to stamp on anyone's head and I do not believe that I made contact with his head.'
Mr Marsden also denied suggestions he had pushed his Taser into the face of Amaaz's mother Shameem Akhtar as she knelt beside her son on the floor .
Mr Khan told the witness: 'She was bending over with her hand on her son's head - she was trying to protect her son's head.'
Marsden responded by saying: 'I still deny trying to stamp on his head.
'I was trying to clamp the wire. My vision was impaired and I was disorientated, having been punched ten to 15 times.'
The officer was shown a photograph of Mrs Akhtar which showed a facial injury, as Mr Khan asked him: 'Did you cause that injury? '
Mr Marsden replied: 'I believe it is unclear whether it was or was not my actions which caused this injury.
'I believe I was not the only person to make contact with Mrs Akhtar.'
Mr Khan said that Mr Marsden had hit Mrs Akhtar with his Taser.
The police officer told him in response: 'I acknowledge what you are suggesting and I am disputing it.
'I firmly believe you can wholly say it was my actions. I pushed her twice with my right hand. I believe it was justified and proportionate in the circumstances.
'She was grabbing my leg and I was being pulled forwards. Using my left hand, I took hold of her grip to remove it.'
Mr Khan asked: 'What was she preventing you doing which required you take that action?'
Mr Marsden said he was being prevented from placing handcuffs on Amaaz, adding: 'I was being pulled over and risked being pulled on top of him. I was vulnerable.'
Mr Khan said the CCTV showed there was a 'hard push' of Mr Marsden's Taser into the face of Mrs Akhtar and suggested he could have used his hand.
Mr Marsden told the court: 'It was a fast-paced incident.
'There was no time to use my hand. I needed to act quickly to control him.'
The officer was also questioned over using a pepper spray on an onlooker called Mr Ali Rahman who was with two relatives filming the incident on their phones.
The jury was shown mobile phone footage of officers trying to arrest a man named as Saaed Rahman on suspicion of obstructing the police.
Another man called Ihsman Rahman protested: 'We have just come off the plane - we have not done anything.'
Amaaz appeared to still be grappling with one officer before he was hit with the Taser shot
Having 'deemed' that his assailant was 'a threat', PC Marsden said he struck Amaad (pictured right) in the face with his first in an attempt to push him away
Mr Marsden said that other officers were pointing Tasers at the three men and he decided to use his pepper spray as 'a less lethal option ' to help secure the arrest.
He agreed that he had said after the incident that there were '10 to 15 of them against the three of us'.
He added: 'The crowd was hostile. No one in that room was trying to help us. They watched us being violently beaten again and again.'
Cross-examining Pc Marsden, Chloe Gardner, defending Amaad, said: 'I suggest that you and your colleagues were the aggressors.'
Pc Marsden said: 'I can only account for my actions. I deny what you allege."
Amaaz is alleged to have assaulted Pc Marsden and Pc Lydia Ward, causing them actual bodily harm.
He is also accused of the assault of Pc Ellie Cook and the earlier Starbucks assault of Abdulkareem Ismaeil, while Amaad is alleged to have assaulted Pc Marsden, causing actual bodily harm. Both deny the allegations.
The trial continues.
