The family of Yousef Makki have today won their appeal for a fresh inquest into his fatal stabbing in 2019.
The 17-year-old's original verdict has been quashed and a fresh inquest is to be held in front of another coroner. The ruling represents a major victory for the Makki family's campaign for justice.
Yousef's friend Joshua Molnar was cleared of murder and manslaughter later in 2019, saying he acted in self-defence, and in 2021 a coroner ruled she could not reach a verdict of unlawful killing as the precise circumstances of the death 'could not be ascertained', a narrative conclusion which infuriated the Makki family.
READ MORE: Shocking CCTV captures Yousef Makki's final moments before he's stabbed to death
Today the family were told judges have quashed the judgement and their campaign for a fresh inquest has succeeded.
Yousef was fatally stabbed through the heart aged 17. From a humble background, the talented Manchester Grammar School (MGS) pupil from Burnage was stabbed by his rich friend, Joshua Molnar, also 17, on leafy Gorse Bank Road in affluent Hale Barns on March 2, 2019.
Molnar, now 21, 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 him and pulled a knife on him. A jury acquitted Molnar of murder and manslaughter following a trial.
His co-defendant at the 2019 trial, another MGS student, Adam Chowdhary, now 20, from Hale Barns, who described Yousef as his 'best friend', 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 online during a break from lessons at MGS.
Yousef's mother Debbie, 55, died in May, 2020, during lockdown. She had never recovered from Yousef's death and died 'of a broken heart', according to her family.
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Debbie and the rest of the Makki family fought for an inquest, which took place over seven days in 2021 at South Manchester Coroner’s Court in Stockport - at the conclusion senior coroner Alison Mutch said that she could not return a conclusion of ‘unlawful killing’, saying the 'precise circumstances' surrounding Yousef’s stabbing could not be 'ascertained'. The Makki family have always maintained that Yousef was a ‘peacemaker’ and said they were 'disgusted' with the conclusion.
The Makki family continued with their campaign and successfully applied for a judicial review of the coroner's findings, which took place at Manchester's Civil Justice Centre in November last year before Mr Justice Fordham and Lady Justice Macur.
Representing Yousef’s family, Peter Weatherby KC told the hearing that Ms Mutch should have 'strived to make a finding' that Yousef's death was accidental or unlawful.
He said: "In essence, the coroner found insufficient evidence on the balance of probabilities that he was unlawfully killed… we say that there was a wealth of evidence." Mr Weatherby referenced Molnar’s differing accounts that he said changed from what he told police at the scene in the immediate aftermath of the stabbing, to his trial, and then eventually the inquest.
After stabbing Yousef, Molnar told police officers that he had been around the corner at the time and had not seen what had happened. He added that the culprits had sped off in a silver hatchback.
During his trial, Molnar changed his story but said that Yousef had brandished his own knife first, before he got his out in self-defence. Then, during the inquest, Molnar said he could not remember who had taken the knife out first.
Today High Court judges quashed the decision of the original inquest and have directed a fresh inquest before a different coroner, lawyers for the Makki family have confirmed.
In the judgment, the judges said the original coroner's narration of the evidence was 'insufficiently distilled' and there was 'no explanation' of how her findings were relevant to her conclusion on the stabbing.
It added there was 'no explanation' as to why she regarded an incident that took place on a bridge over the M56 in the hours before the death as 'pivotal' in explaining the relationships of the boys.
The judgment said the judges could 'not discern an attempt to analyse' events immediately prior to the stabbing and there was 'no indication' the coroner had 'assessed the reliability' of Joshua Molnar's evidence at the inquest.
The coroner noted Molnar had lied in the aftermath of the stabbing but the coroner 'seemingly disregards this' as this had been dealt with during the criminal trial, according to the judgment.
The coroner had accepted Adam Chowdhary's evidence about a knife he removed from Yousef but was 'silent' on any conclusions about this or how this weighed against what Molnar had said about it, said the judges.
Lady Justice Macur said: "Consequently, whilst I do not consider that the evidence necessarily all points in one direction, neither can I be satisfied that (the coroner) has assessed all relevant evidence or analysed the findings of fact she made.
"(The coroner's) generic reference to her consideration of the 'totality' of the evidence is inadequate to convey that she did ‘strive’ to reach a conclusion upon the evidence. If she did so but was left profoundly unsure then she did not explain why."
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