An armed police officer who kicked a suspect in the head during an alleged brawl at Manchester Airport was ‘an uncontrolled bully with a badge ‘, a court was told today.
Police Constable Zachary Marsden had ‘defied protocol, ethics, procedure and the law’ in the confrontation at the pay station area of Terminal Two at Manchester Airport last July, the jury heard.
The trial at Liverpool Crown Court has heard PC Marsden along with PCs Ellie Cook and Lydia Ward were involved in the fracas with brothers Mohammed Amaaz, 20, and Muhammed Amaad, 26.
The violent clash was sparked when the officers tried to arrest Mr Amaaz for an earlier assault on a man at the Starbucks café inside the terminal, the jury has been told.
CCTV and mobile footage which included PC Marsden kicking Mr Amaaz in the head and stamping on him has been played several times in the four-week trial.
Chloe Gardner, defending Mr Amaad, told the jury in her closing speech the CCTV was without sound and like ‘a jigsaw puzzle’, with the prosecution asking the jury ‘to guess the final picture’.
Ms Gardner likened the assessment of the CCTV evidence to watching a TV crime drama with the sound turned down.
She said: ‘I had Criminal Minds on the TV and I did not have much of a clue about what was going on because the sound was off. I could get the gist but not the full picture.
PC Zachary Marsden has been accused of being a ‘bully’ after stamping on the head of Mohammed Amaaz (both pictured in the foreground, with Amaaz’s brother, Muhammed Amaad, seen far right)
Pictured is the moment just before PC Marsden kicks Amaaz in the head at Manchester
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz (left) 20, arriving at Liverpool Crown Court earlier this month with his brother Muhammed Amaad, 26 (right)
‘CCTV plays a central role here. It can be helpful but it comes with big warning signs because there is no audio and certainly cannot convey what is going on in someone’s mind .
‘Both sides in this case have played a fair amount of CCTV footage, sometimes at slow speed. We tend to forget how quickly this happened. It was a matter of seconds which has changed the lives of the defendants.’
She said the victim in the Starbucks incident, Abdulkareem Ismaeil, has decided not to take things any further and had not given evidence.
Ms Gardner said: ‘The prosecution say “we have the CCTV and that is all the evidence we need”. They have given you a jigsaw puzzle and have asked you to guess the final picture. You cannot assess the stature of Mr Ismaeil and whether he was getting wound up, hostile and intimidating.
‘The prosecution have not brought Mr Ismaeil here to fill in the gaps by giving evidence.’
She said that it was ‘crucial’ PC Marsden had ‘strode into the pay station’ and had grabbed Mr Amaaz without announcing he was a police officer.
Ms Gardner said: ‘Imagine if grabbing someone and not saying anything became standard police practice. Police Constable Marsden threw away the rule book long ago. His behaviour was aggressive and uncontrolled.’
She said the brother had said ‘easy, easy, easy, easy, easy, no, no, no’ in a bid to de-escalate the situation.
The head injury received by Amaaz is seen in this photo, provided by his solicitor
Amaaz (in blue) was seen to throw 10 punches at the officers during the violence, while his brother – Muhammad Amaad (far left), 26, who is also on trial – threw six
Mohammed Fahir Amaaz (pictured left in blue) throws punches at PC Ellie Cook while his brother Muhammad Amaad (right, in black) grapples with her colleague PC Zachary Marsden
Muhammad Amaad, 26, (left) and his brother Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, (right) arriving for their trial at Liverpool Crown Court either side of their solicitor, Aamer Anwar
Ms Gardner continued: ‘But these words had zero effect of PC Marsden, who was covered in that red mist. He had no regard for procedure or doing things the right way. He acted how he wanted. His way was the only way.’
‘The reality is that PC Marsden, with his firearm and his Taser, was a firearm in himself.’
She said PC Marsden hit the brothers’ mother in the face with his Taser during the struggle and had continued to assault Amaad even when he had his hands on his head and when his brother was handcuffed on the ground.
Ms Gardner said the officer had smashed Mr Amaad’s face in the ground when he was trying to restrain him and had placed his knee on his neck.
She said: ‘PC Marsden could have killed Mr Amaaz with the kick and he could have suffocated Mr Amaad.’
Trial judge Neil Flewitt told the jury they will begin their deliberations on Monday after he has summed up the evidence in the case.
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.
His elder brother Muhammed Amaad,26, is accused of one charge of assault causing actual bodily harm on PC Marsden.
The brothers from Rochdale, Greater Manchester claim they were acting in self defence.
