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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
John Scheerhout

Police bodycam shows the lies of rich teen who stabbed his talented pal to death

Police body-cam footage released for the first time shows the shocking moments after a talented grammar school pupil was fatally stabbed by his rich pal.

Tearful former public schoolboy Joshua Molnar, then 17, is seen in the footage lying to police after he had stabbed his friend Yousef Makki, also 17, through the heart.

He is captured telling an officer: "We've come sprinting over and the guy was just coughing up blood."

Molnar also told officers the 'culprits' had sped off in a silver hatchback, The Manchester Evening News reports.

Yousef, a teenager from a humble family in Burnage who had won a bursary to attend the elite Manchester Grammar School, died in hospital.

Molnar later admitted stabbing Yousef but a jury accepted he had acted in self-defence.

Molnar, from a wealthy family in Hale, was acquitted of murder and manslaughter, telling the jury he had acted in self-defence.

But he served time for possessing the knife which inflicted the fatal injury and perverting the course of justice, namely lying to cops at the scene.

Police body-cam footage of the aftermath was played during his 2019 trial and an inquest last year, where a coroner refused a media application led by the M.E.N. for it to be released.

Police body-cam footage shows Joshua Molnar (Channel 4)

But now it is to be published as part of a Channel 4 documentary Killed By A Rich Kid which will be broadcast tomorrow (Monday) at 9pm. It was obtained following a long legal battle by the makers of the documentary.

The footage, released to the M.E.N. ahead of the programme, shows bare-chested Joshua Molnar moments after he had fatally stabbed his friend through the heart.

He had removed his top to stem the bleeding from Yousef's chest injury until the emergency services arrived at Gorse Bank Road in affluent Hale Barns.

As paramedics arrived to tend to Yousef, who is on the ground by a tree, a police officer is captured on his own body-cam telling sobbing Molnar: "Right, come over here. What's happened?"

Yousef Makki who tragically died (PA)

Molnar says: "We were walking over the motorway.... Then Yousef Makki's walked ahead. We've come round the corner and he's just fallen over. We've come round the corner. We've come sprinting over and the guy was just coughing up blood... I've taken my shirt off and I've put pressure on it.

"But he hasn't been able to say anything and he's been, like, gasping for breath."

The officer asks him: "How's that happened?"

Molnar replies 'I don't know' and repeats he had been around the corner when the incident happened. He later suggests those responsible had driven off in a silver hatchback.

The footage then shows another pal, Adam Chowdhary, also 17 and from another wealthy family, come into view and another officer says that he is 'trying to leave'.

Joshua Molnar was acquitted of murder and manslaughter, telling the jury he had acted in self-defence. (MEN MEDIA)

Chowdhary is told to take a seat in a patrol car.

Moments later the footage shows Chowdhary now seated in the police car.

When he is asked 'who's done this?' the youth replies: "I don't know, I was walking far, look, ask him, ask how far back I was. That's why I was shocked. Because I was so far back he lifts up I see his belt. I was like, whoa, what's that? Or I see something, I see his pants or something and I'm like, whoa what's that?"

Molnar, asked 'who would have done this?', is captured moments later telling an officer: "I don't know."

When he is urged to 'just be honest mate', he answers: "A lot of people that come from different areas, from Stretford and stuff like that, to Hale to try and rob people from their stuff. That's what happens most of the time and, erm, the other week someone's tried to take my stuff."

Yousef Makki was a talented grammar school pupil (Jade Akoum)
Yousef with his late mum Debbie Makki (MEN Media)

Asked who had done this he blames 'a group of black guys'.

Yousef spent the previous night at the Hale Barns home of Adam Chowdhary, a fellow MGS pupil, and met up with Joshua Molnar in the afternoon before the stabbing.

In the documentary, Yousef's tearful sister Jade Akoum, who is leading a campaign for the case to be revisited, tells her partner as he consoles her: "I'm trying to be strong but he was my brother. All the details that they said and how he died and we weren't there for him and I'll never forgive myself that I couldn't be there. He died on his own miles away from where he comes from and we were thinking he was safe."

Yousef was just 17 when he was fatally stabbed through the heart by Molnar, a former public schoolboy from a wealthy Hale family, during the confrontation on March 2, 2019.

Yousef Makki's family is seeking a judicial review to overturn the coroner's inconclusive verdict (Jade Akoum)

A jury acquitted Molnar, now 20, of murder and manslaughter later that year, although he was handed a 16-month detention and training order after admitting possessing the knife which inflicted the fatal injury and lying to police at the scene.

He says he acted in self-defence, alleging Yousef pushed and punched him and called him 'p*ssy'. Yousef's family say this is totally out of character and told last year's inquest Yousef acted as a peacemaker.

His co-defendant at the 2019 trial Adam Chowdhary, now 19, from Hale Barns, who described Yousef as his 'best friend' at MGS, was acquitted of perverting the course of justice.

He was given a four-month detention order after admitting possession of a flick knife, one of two he claimed he and Yousef had jointly ordered during a break from lessons at MGS.

Following an inquest in November, Senior South Manchester Coroner Ms Mutch recorded a narrative conclusion, saying: "Yousef died from complications of a stab wound to chest. The precise circumstances in which he was wounded cannot, on balance of probabilities, be ascertained."

The Makki family, who had urged an unlawful killing finding, is seeking a judicial review to overturn the coroner's inconclusive verdict.

After Adam Chowdhary had arranged a small cannabis deal, the three friends went to a country lane near Manchester Airport to collect the drugs but Molnar was beaten by two associates of the alleged dealer and had his £2,000 Starling bike thrown over a hedge.

Molnar said he blamed Chowdhary, who had cycled away from the confrontation, and later took Chowdhary's £300 jacket as 'compensation' until the bike was returned.

He said that while he was annoyed with Chowdhary he had not been upset with Yousef, who had tried to find his bike, and just wanted to get home as the fight had left him 'dazed'.

Adam Chowdhary told the inquest he was walking some distance away and did not see the incident.

Molnar said he blamed Chowdhary for the earlier incident and the jacket was 'compensation' until his bike was returned to him.

While the coroner ruled against the release of police body-cam footage, she sanctioned the release of CCTV footage which was played during the inquest.

Molnar is captured on CCTV walking away following the jacket incident followed by Yousef Makki. Chowdhary walks in the opposite direction but returns seconds later.

Joshua Molnar, with the jacket in his hand, is captured walking along Ridge Avenue at 6.31pm followed by Yousef Makki and Adam Chowdhary.

Molnar is then seen walking along Gorse Bank Road at 6.34pm followed by Adam Chowdhary and then a little way behind other two finally Yousef Makki, who breaks into a run.

This is the last time Yousef was captured alive, at 6.34pm and 46 seconds.

The inquest heard the fatal stabbing occurred, unseen by any camera, at about 6.36pm.

Yousef was just 17 when he died (MEN Media)

Yousef was a grade-A student at Manchester Grammar School (Jade Akoum)


Mr Chowdhary told the documentary in a statement: "I would like... to reiterate my deepest condolences to Yousef's family. I want it to be clear to anyone else thinking of carrying a knife, the risk of something terrible happening is real. I want others to learn from my mistake.

"All the facts were addressed in detail in both the high court trial and the inquest. I voluntarily gave a full account to the police and gave evidence at the inquest. I am sorry that Yousef's family feel that they are left with questions, but I cannot add anything to what I have already said about that day."

Yousef's sister Jade Akoum told the M.E.N: "We are pleased that the public finally get to see the bodycam footage. We hope the public can make up their own minds as to how and why Yousef died that night."

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