Express, November 20, 2014

Mohammed Abdi had a minor role in the 2013 Tom Hanks movie Captain Phillips, which tells the story of the takeover of an oil tanker.

The sentencing judge told the court he had seen the film “more than once”, and had thought the actors playing the pirates were “fantastic”.

However, the court heard that Abdi was also part of a mob who ambushed rivals as they were coming out of south Manchester takeaways.

In the first attack, the victim was on his way out of a friend chicken shop when his assailants, led by Abdi, pulled up in a Nissan Micra and set upon him.

The man was kicked unconscious and suffered a fractured cheekbone before being bundled into a car, driven off, and released after an hour.

Prosecutor Katy Jones said Abdi had previously been involved in a fraud case with the victim, and called him a “grass” before the attack on March 2 last year.

The victim suffered a brain haemorrhage in the aftermath of the assault.

On August 17 this year, Abdi also took part in a gang attack on a man suspected of insulting his friend at a bakery.

The victim was cut on the arm after Abdi attacked him with a bottle in front of horrified staff and customers.

David Temkin, defending, said there was “another side” to Abdi, who had a well-paid sales job and had enjoyed the “privileged experience’ of nine weeks filming in Morocco after being cast in Captain Phillips.

Jailing Abdi, 29, of Moss Side, for two-and-half years after he admitted two GBH charges, the Judge Martin Rudland said it was a “great shame” to see him in the dock for the “deplorable” attacks after his role in the film.

He commented: “When I watched this film, I thought where have they got these fantastic Somali actors from? They are extremely convincing.”

Describing the first incident, Judge Rudland said: “It’s a whisker between behaviour of this sort and death, but you were completely unmindful of that.”

Abdi’s accomplices in that attack, Mohammed Omar Ali, 33, of Longsight, and Hamid Hassan, 27, of Hulme, were jailed for two years after admitting GBH.

His accomplices in the second attack, Ismail Warsama, 30, of London, and Abdi Arteh, of Moss Side, were handed 12-month suspended sentences after admitting affray.