Two brothers whose violent arrest at Manchester Airport went viral when bystanders filmed the aftermath on mobile phones will not face a third trial for assaulting an armed policeman.
There was outrage at scenes of PC Zachary Marsden kicking a prone Asian man in the head in July 2024.
Protesters took to the streets holding ‘Black Lives Matter’ placards and calling for the police to be ‘defunded’.
But days later there was a fierce backlash when leaked CCTV showed the violence to which PC Marsden and two female colleagues had been subjected just seconds earlier.
It took 150 days for prosecutors to announce that PC Marsden would not be charged with any offence.
Instead the brothers – the recipient of the kick, university drop-out Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, now 21, and former KFC assistant manager Muhammad Amaad, 26, both from Rochdale – were charged with assaulting the three officers.
A trial last year saw horrifying footage of the brutal violence meted out by Amaaz to PC Lydia Ward – who suffered a broken nose – and armed colleague PC Ellie Cook.
But while Amaaz was convicted of causing actual bodily harm to PC Ward and assaulting PC Cook, jurors could not reach verdicts on whether the brothers had both assaulted PC Marsden.
The outcome sparked consternation, with Greater Manchester police chief Sir Stephen Watson praising his officers for putting themselves in ‘harm’s way’ to tackle ‘outrageous criminal behaviour’.
After a second jury at Liverpool Crown Court last week failed to reach verdicts, prosecutors today told a judge that they would not be seeking a third trial, and both brothers were formally found not guilty of assaulting PC Marsden.
Lawyers for the brothers had argued that PC Marsden was a ‘bad apple’ and that his actions showed ‘red mist’ had descended, likening him to ‘RoboCop’.
But the prosecution said PC Marsden and his team was ‘plainly entitled’ to arrest Amaaz for headbutting a holidaymaker minutes earlier.
‘Any sensible analysis’ of the evidence would show that it was the brothers who were ‘out of control’, Paul Greaney KC submitted.
Jurors were not told that Amaaz had already spent the past nine months in custody awaiting sentencing.
The three-minute confrontation sparked a fierce debate over the use of force by the police.
Leaders of rank and file officers have responded by calling for greater support from politicians and the public.
The incident erupted after Amaaz headbutted a Kuwaiti holidaymaker after accusing him of racially abusing his mother, Shameem Akhtar, who they had just met from an incoming flight from Pakistan via Qatar.
