An armed policeman caught on camera kicking a prone suspect in the face at Manchester Airport is a 'rotten apple' who believed he could 'do whatever the hell I want', a jury was told today.
PC Zachary Marsden used 'unlawful and unnecessary' force against Mohammed Fahir Amaaz in an example of 'bad policing', his barrister argued in his closing speech. But jurors were earlier urged by prosecutors to 'trust their own eyes and ears' after being shown footage of the incident from multiple angles.
Amaaz, now 21, and his brother Muhammad Amaad, 26, are on trial accused of unlawfully using a 'high level of violence' against police at the car park pay station area in July 2024.
PC Marsden, 26, along with colleagues PC Lydia Ward and PC Ellie Cook, had approached Amaaz to arrest him after a report he had headbutted a customer at the Starbucks cafe in the arrivals hall. But instead, Amaaz lashed out at both policewomen, a jury at Liverpool Crown Court has been told, before Amaad allegedly punched PC Marsden repeatedly. Both brothers were then Tasered before footage shows PC Marsden kicking Amaaz in the face and aiming a stamp close by.
Delivering his closing speech on behalf of Amaaz today, Imran Khan KC told jurors the incident was a case of 'chaos, confusion and Keystone cops'.
'What happened here is that these officers, and PC Marsden in particular, acted contrary to their training and in violation of their codes of practice and, most egregiously, acted unlawfully. It was bad policing. It was policing which undermined public confidence. We say with regret that this was an officer who could be described as a bad apple, a rotten apple in the barrel, whose conduct on the day led us to being here,' Mr Khan said.
Mr Khan said PC Marsden had failed to gather appropriate intelligence or assess the risk to himself and his colleagues. He had also failed to develop a strategy for the arrest of Amaaz and failed to communicate a strategy to his colleagues. PC Marsden used force which was unlawful in kicking and stamping on Amaaz's head, he said.
The defence barrister argued that PC Marsden was thinking: 'I can do whatever the hell I want because I am a police officer with a gun.' 'It was vindictive, it was shocking and it was cruel,' he added. 'The red mist had fallen. But he was not satisfied with the kick, he stamped on his head. He then kneed him in the back. It was gratuitous, it was not a controlled approach.'
Giving the prosecution closing speech earlier, Paul Greaney KC urged jurors to 'stand firm against any effort to muddy the waters.' He said that 'any sensible analysis' of the evidence would show that it was the brothers who were 'out of control'. Mr Greaney said that the kick and stamp by PC Marsden 'had nothing to do with the real issue' because it came after the violence from Amaaz toward police officers. 'It cannot bear any logical justification for the defendants' violence,' he added. He argued that Amaad had 'seen red' and joined in with his brother's violence by 'pummelling' PC Marsden.
Mr Greaney said that the officers were 'plainly entitled' to arrest Amaaz because he had carried out a violent attack at the cafe moments earlier. 'Please trust your own eyes and ears, and when you do so, the truth will become clear,' he told them. 'When you strip it all away, when you analyse the evidence objectively, it is clear that the defendants are guilty as charged.'
Amaaz was last year convicted of assaulting the passenger and the female officers, the jury has been told. The brothers, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, have both pleaded not guilty to causing actual bodily harm to PC Marsden. The case continues.
