Ghalib Saeed has been jailed for more than three years
17:37, 14 Jan 2026Updated 17:46, 14 Jan 2026
Ghalib Saeed(Image: GMP)
A masked man let off butane gas on trams in ‘malicious’ acts which caused Metrolink passengers ‘distress and alarm’.
Ghalib Saeed, 31, boarded trams on three separate days while wearing a mask, and stashing a canister of butane gas in a rucksack. Passengers were alarmed by the mask and some were left lightheaded and nauseous after smelling gas.
Saeed has now been jailed for three years and two months after admitting the bizarre crime. He claimed people had been harassing them and that he was letting off gas as a ‘prank’ to make them ‘back off’. Judge Elizabeth Nicholls told Saeed as she sentenced him at Manchester Crown Court: “These were planned and malicious acts intending to cause serious distress and alarm to your fellow passengers.”
Prosecuting, Henry Blackshaw said that Saeed boarded a tram on three days, once on March 15, and March 20, and on two occasions on March 22 last year.
The mask Saeed wore on the trams(Image: Supplied)
He said that a later interrogation of Saeed’s phone revealed that the defendant had been making internet searches about gas in the days before. Mr Blackshaw said: “He had researched a wide range of different types of gases, whether or not they were dangerous, which gases could be mixed together and what the effects of gases are. He had researched gas masks for sale, where to buy gas and a ‘toxic gas mask’.”
The prosecutor said that Saeed also searched ‘white areas of Manchester’. Joel Molloy, a passenger on a tram on the Bury line heading towards Manchester, noticed Saeed wearing a gas mask, at about 2pm on Saturday, March 15. He then began to smell gas, describing the smell as ‘really strong’ and ‘bad’.
He and some friends decided to get off the tram at the next stop, at Heaton Park. The incident was reported to police.
Saeed was next seen on Thursday, March 20 on another tram on the Bury line. A passenger saw Saeed standing near the door wearing the mask, noticing that other passengers were looking at him with a ‘sense of unease’.
Saeed appeared ‘shifty’, it was said. A hissing sound could then be heard, as Saeed let off gas. Passengers soon noticed a strong smell of gas, and a woman near him walked away.
The canister of butane gas which was seized from Saeed(Image: Supplied)
One passenger, Christopher Blackmore, said he felt ‘lightheaded’, ‘nauseous’ and ‘uneasy’, and reported it to police. Saeed was seen out and about on the tram wearing the mask on two occasions on Saturday, March 22. He boarded a tram at Abraham Moss stop, and got off at Queens Road.
A man named Ryan O’Grady had arrived at Queens Road station in order to report information he had seen on a Facebook post, about a man letting off gas on trams. By pure chance, he saw Saeed in the flesh.
He alerted tram staff and decided to follow Saeed himself, the court was told, after he became ‘very disappointed’ that they did not intervene. Mr O’Grady, who was awarded a public commendation by the judge, followed Saeed through several streets and called 999.
He eventually stopped after fearing Saeed may have a ‘chemical’ on his person. Saeed then walked back to Abraham Moss stop, and at about 8.30pm boarded a tram towards Bury.
The tram was busy and after seeing him in his mask, people began to move away. A passenger, Jake Wrall, said his legs began to feel like ‘jelly’ after smelling gas.
He decided to confront Saeed, asking him if he was letting off gas. Saeed replied that the ‘only gas he had got was from diarrhoea’.
Mr Wrall uses the tram everyday and said he is now ‘scared to get on a tram to go to work’. Other witnesses said about 20 to 30 people got off the tram during a ‘mass exodus’ at Crumpsall to avoid Saeed.
Saeed was arrested the following day, on Sunday, March 23, near the Fort retail park on Cheetham Hill Road. He claimed that he had become addicted to inhaling butane gas.
In a prepared statement, Saeed claimed: “The people making these allegations, I believe they work with the MI5. I believe they are conspiring against me.”
Saeed, of no fixed address, elected to represent himself in court. He said he was ‘sincerely sorry’ for his behaviour and that ‘nothing like this will happen again’.
He claimed that a ‘group of individuals’ had been ‘harassing and intimidating him’, alleging that he had reported his allegations to police but that they had not investigated his concerns. Saeed claimed that letting off gas was a ‘prank’ to get those he accused of intimidating him to ‘back off’.
Saeed previously pleaded guilty to three counts of causing a public nuisance by discharging butane gas on the eve of a trial in September last year.