The youth who stabbed to death Yousef Makki has told how he feels 'ashamed' that he lied to the police but stood by his claim that he had acted in self-defence.
Former public schoolboy Joshua Molnar, from Hale, was cleared of murder and manslaughter following a trial in 2019 after a jury accepted his argument that he acted in self-defence.
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Yousef, a talented 17-year-old bursary student at Manchester Grammar School from Burnage, died after being stabbed through the heart with a flick-knife on Gorse Bank Road in Hale Barns on March 2, 2019.
Molnar told an inquest which concluded today that Yousef had become annoyed with him and had called him 'pussy' for wanting to go home after Molnar had been beaten by associates of an alleged drug dealer earlier that day and he had his £2,000 Starling bike thrown over a hedge.
He said Yousef pushed and punched him and that the pair got out knives, a version of events that had always been disputed by the Makki family.
South Manchester Coroner Alison Mutch concluded the inquest with a narrative verdict today.
"Having reflected on and considered all the evidence, I'm not satisfied even on the balance of probabilities, that I can be satisfied as to the precise sequence of events so that I can be satisfied that the death was an unlawful killing," she said.
Molnar said in his formal statement to the inquest: "Yousef was my friend. I did not intend him to come to any harm and I am extremely sad at having been involved in his death and for all the anguish which it has, understandably, caused.
"The circumstances surrounding his death were examined in great detail at the criminal trial. I was questioned, under oath, at great length. The jury heard all of the evidence and I was acquitted. The jury was conscientiously doing its duty and it is unfortunate that its verdicts have been attacked.
"I stand by my evidence on oath in my trial. I tried to answer all questions honestly and to the best of my ability but, as I made clear, my memory as to the exact sequence of events was patchy. It remains patchy and I have tried not to think about it as it is very upsetting. I was a boy and the events, which left me totally out of my depth, were extremely traumatic.
"I deeply regret having initially lied to the police. I was very frightened by what was unfolding. I now know that nothing which I could have said at the time would have saved Yousef’s life, but I am ashamed that I did not have the courage to tell the truth. I admitted the offence related to that and I have paid for it through my sentence.
"It has been suggested that Yousef was portrayed as 'some sort of middle class gangster'. I note that his sister says that he was portrayed that way in the press. I wish to make it clear that it was no part of my case that he was anything of the sort.
"We clearly all behaved in an immature way. Our behaviour, as evidenced by what was seen in the car park and the videos which were exhibited, was described by my counsel to the jury as idiotic, juvenile and pathetic. I cannot disagree. We were boys playing stupid games, particularly in relation to knives, which led to an unnecessary and tragic death.
"Yousef was not any sort of gangster. He did not deserve to die."
Molnar explained why he 'stupidly' made and shared a video to drill music during a visit to the toilet in which his hands can be seen making stabbing motions with an imaginary knife.
He said: "I wish to explain the circumstances in which it was made. I made it at court during the part of the case in which I was being cross-examined. I was under intense pressure and I thought that some of the questions I was asked were unfair and were misleading.
"In particular, there was reference to lyrics from a rap song which it was being suggested reflected an aggressive attitude on my part, which was untrue.
"I had never been through anything like this before. I was telling the court the truth but I was very upset about the way in which the video was being presented and so I stupidly made a video which was intended to reflect the prosecution barrister’s approach. It was on a private account, intended for my girlfriend and was not meant for publication and should have been deleted.
"I was appalled that someone copied it and shared it. I am appalled, looking back, on the way I reacted. It was stupid and irrational and I understand that it will have caused concern to Yousef’s family and I deeply regret that. They have had enough to deal with.
"I wish to make it clear that my distress when I was giving evidence was not feigned. I remain horrified by what happened.
"I wish to make it clear, again, that my evidence reflected my best recollections of what happened and that I was not doing anything other than to tell the truth. My actions in making the video should not be conflated with my actual evidence.
"The way the video has been portrayed in the press is a long way from my confused thoughts at the time of making it."
Molnar's co-defendant in the 2019 trial, Adam Chowdhary, signed a much longer, 16-page statement for the inquiry, describing Yousef as 'my best friend'.
It concludes with an offer of condolences to the Makki family. "I am just so sorry they have had to go through this," he wrote.
After Chowdhary, also a Manchester Grammar pupil, had arranged a small cannabis deal, the three went to a country lane near Manchester Airport to collect the drugs but Molnar was beaten by two associates of the alleged dealer.
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.
Chowdhary, also 17 at the time but now 19, from Hale Barns, was acquitted of perverting the course of justice and told police he did not see what had happened. He was given a four-month detention order after admitting possession of a flick knife.
Chowdhary alleged during the inquest he and Yousef had 'jointly' purchased two flick-knives - including the one that inflicted the fatal injury - a few weeks before the stabbing on a phone while they were in the MGS canteen during a break.
Chowdhary said in his formal statement to the inquest: "The day started out as us going to hang around together and perhaps smoke a bit of cannabis. By the end of the day my best friend had died and his family’s life changed forever and for the worse.
"I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest condolences to Yousef’s family. The reality is that I don’t know what to say except that I think about him every day and miss him so much. I saw Yousef as family and someone who would always be in my life.
"If I could turn the clock back and change our decision to take knives out with us that day this would never have happened. I can only imagine what the last few years have been like for his family and, whilst the incident has affected me - losing my best friend, going to prison, the publication of my name shaming me, numerous health issues related to trauma and stress, the effect on my family - I appreciate that this is nothing compared to what they have had to endure.
"My family and I were also very sad to learn of (Yousef's mother) Debbie Makki’s death and would like to express our condolences."
He added: "At the end of the criminal case in the summer of 2019, I was taken to the cells, then into a prison van called a 'sweatbox' and then to Weatherby young offenders institution. People were shouting 'fresh meat' and swearing at me. I thought I was in a nightmare. I was so scared of being attacked and have never felt so alone and vulnerable.
"I was in prison for 62 days during which time I witnessed another inmate try and burn himself alive and people self-harming on a daily basis. All of these things were incredibly difficult but nothing has impacted me more than the pain of losing my best friend Yousef.
"My personality has changed. I am now more reserved and I find it hard to express my feelings. I say this not to ask for sympathy but to explain to Yousef’s family what has happened and to anyone else that if you carry a knife this is what awaits you if you do."
Chowdhary went on: "Yousef and I were all on track to go to university and were always getting good grades. We talked about going to the same university to study dentistry. But aged 17 there were a lot of social changes going on. We were changing from GCSE students to thinking we were young men. We were starting to drive, we were able to go out and drink and there were lots of parties.
"We thought we knew how life goes but now I know we had no idea. We were smoking cannabis, listening to gangster music about guns, knives and drugs and just thought it was amusing. We were showing off to each other and there was an element of bravado about how we acted towards each other.
"It seemed that the more rebellious you were the more credibility you had with each other and the girls. We all just wanted and needed to seem 'cool'.
"Losing my best friend has forced me to look back and realise where I was and how I was acting at the time."
He described meeting Yousef during MGS induction day in 2013.
He said: "I used to call him 'Makks' and he would call me 'T' because he didn’t want to call me 'Twig' like others as he would be worried about my insecurities. We were in the same Chinese class for five years and I would say that our friendship was already well established in year 7. We used to play tennis and football together and were on the same teams. We once joked that we were cousins and successfully convinced friends that we were related for the first three years of school.
"By year 9 we would go to places such as Manchester City and the Arndale. On occasions we would be by ourselves but other occasions we would be part of a group. Yousef lived in Burnage and I had stayed overnight at his house and Youssef had stayed at my house in years 9, 10 and 11. Our parents got on very well."
His relationship with Josh Molnar was not as close, he said.
He said: "The 2 March 2019 was the very first time we had hung around together as a three."
Chowdhary said he and Yousef came across a pair of flick knives for £5 on the website Wish during a break at MGS. One of these was the one which inflicted the fatal injury.
He said: "We decided to order them. We did so as it seemed everyone else had them and carrying a knife was viewed as being 'cool'.
"I got them sent to a friend’s address as I knew my mother would open the package if they were sent to my home. They arrived a week or two before the 2 March 2019."
On the day of his fatal stabbing, he said Yousef asked to see the knives and they decided to take them out because they thought Molnar would be impressed by them.
He said: "We arranged to meet at Booths (supermarket in Hale). Before we left I rang up a person, stored in my phone as Cali, to order cannabis. I now know that person to be Ali Ezzedine. I had purchased cannabis from him once before. We ordered £90 worth. We gave him the postcode to deliver to and we were waiting for him to come back to me with a time."
The trio looked at each other's knives in the car park of Booths, he said.
Chowdhary said he called Ezzedine to reduce the order to £45 but he said the alleged dealer was 'curt' on the phone and he didn't get the chance to inform him of the change to the order.
At the meet, Chowdhary said he saw the alleged dealer and others in the car, thought they looked annoyed and 'shady' so he denied he was Adam Chowdhary when they asked him.
He insisted he and his two friends had not discussed robbing Ezzedine.
When Ezzedine's car returned later, he said he heard one of the occupants shout 'you're Josh Molnar innit'.
He said he feared for his life and cycled off.
Describing how he realised Yousef had been stabbed later that night, he said: "I was walking along the pavement and was on my telephone. I could sense that Yousef and Josh were close together up ahead of me. I believe they were further up the road and I did not travel much further down Gorse Bank Road.... I was between 2 and 3 houses away from them when the incident between them happened."
He said he was on the phone to Ali Ezzedine, his alleged drug dealer.
He said: "Yousef was walking towards me... with one hand lifting up his top. He said he had been stabbed.. I did not see Josh stab Yousef. Josh was further down Gorse Bank Road walking in the opposite direction away from us on the other side of the road."
He added: "I walked towards Yousef and he put his arm round me. We turned around and walked back down Gorse Bank Road in the direction of Ridge Avenue. It was clear he was struggling to walk and so I sat him down next to a tree. I called 999 and asked for the police. Yousef then gave me his phone to call the ambulance. I didn’t know his pin to unlock his phone so asked him to unlock it which he did. This can be heard on the transcripts of the 999 calls.
"Yousef then produced his knife from his pocket and held it out to me with an open palm. I’m not sure if I said it out loud but I remember thinking something along the lines of 'What are you doing? Forget this'. I took it from his open palm and dropped it down the grid where we were. The blade was not open when he passed it to me. I later directed the police to where this was. I did this as I assumed that Yousef wanted me to get rid of it as he knew I was on the phone to the police and asking them to attend.
"I was doing all I could to get words out of him but his talking was slowing down and his breathing was getting heavier. I was trying to call the ambulance and the police. I understand there were some items of my clothing found on top of the grid... I recall using both mine and Yousef’s snood to hold on the wound to stop the bleeding. There was just so much blood, it was all over my hands and face.
"I recall taking my gloves off and throwing them down when I was at the scene to help with Yousef."
Chowdhary said he heard Molnar talking about a grey hatchback which had driven off.
He said: "Josh came back to where I was with Yousef. He was with a Benchmark security guard (Michael Bowman). The security guard asked Josh who had done this and I heard him tell him that he saw a grey hatchback which had gone towards the top of the road.
"I do not recall seeing a grey or silver hatchback but I had heard Josh refer to it on numerous occasions at the scene. I believed this account as Josh was in the vicinity and closest to Yousef so I believed he would most likely know what had happened. I did not have a conversation with Josh about the grey car. I had only inferred this is what had happened after hearing Josh repeat it.
"I had no reason to believe that Josh was responsible for stabbing my best friend. The possibility had never crossed my mind. I had believed that he was trying to help the police. Josh was crying and scared as was I. I even asked the police officers if Josh could come back to my house to wait for his parents; I would never have asked this if I believed Josh had stabbed Yousef."
He added: "But when I was with the police at the roadside I couldn’t grasp the reality how serious things were and I was in shock and irrational as a consequence. When I got home shortly afterwards the footage with the officer shows the range of emotions that I was experiencing namely, further shock, panic, crying and above all concern for Yousef.
"The jury accepted that I was not trying to pervert the course of justice and the reason I mentioned the car was because I had heard as much from (Josh Molnar) when he was speaking to the police. This was not an effort to protect (Josh Molnar) and nor is this witness statement. (He) was not and is not a close friend of mine. He is not someone I feel the need to protect. He is not someone that I fear. If I had seen something that implicated him I would say so. But I didn’t and I can’t say that I did as that would be a lie.
"I did not find out that Yousef had died until my cousin told me in the police station at approximately 4am on 3 March 2019. I didn't think it was possible he would have died. I just didn't even want to consider it as a possibility. When I was arrested I asked a police officer if Yousef was okay and I was told that he was."
His statement concludes: "May I lastly please repeat my condolences to the family. I am just so sorry they have had to go through this. I have not been able to say this before as the police have repeatedly instructed us not to communicate with the family directly or indirectly. This witness statement may seem to be about me, my actions and my evidence. But I want to say that I truly acknowledge that whatever has happened to me and the cost to my life, it is nothing compared to the loss of Yousef and the loss to his family. Signed Dated 5 November 2021."
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