A judge has granted permission for a full judicial review into the inquest of of Yousef Makki.
The 17-year-old was fatally stabbed in Hale Barns, Greater Manchester, on March 2, 2019, and his family have been pushing for a review of the inquest to quash the narrative conclusion recorded by the coroner following a seven-day inquest in November 2021. Senior South Manchester Coroner Alison Mutch said she could not conclude the death as either unlawful or accidental, with the finding being described as 'disgusting' by the family.
Following the conclusion, an application was made to the High Court by a QC acting on behalf of Yousef's father, Ghaleb Makki, with the review officially granted at Manchester Civil Justice Centre on May 18, the Manchester Evening News reports. Yousef was a talented bursary student at the elite Manchester Grammar School (MGS), and was fatally stabbed through the heart by his friend Joshua Molnar, a former public schoolboy from a wealthy family in Hale.
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Molnar, 20, was acquitted of murder and manslaughter by a jury later that year, but was handed a 16-month detention and training order for admitting possessing the knife which inflicted the fatal injury and lying to police at the scene. He says he acted in self-defence, saying that Yousef pushed and punched him and called him 'p*ssy'.
At the hearting in the High Court today, Matthew Stanbury, representing the Makki family, claimed that the coroner's ruling - which deemed that what happened could not be known - was 'inevitable' because of their failure to analyse and 'grapple' with the central issues in the case. Mr Stanbury said that the case had a number of issues, including Molnar's credibility and 'numerous lies', his state of mind at the time of the stabbing, who was the first person to take out a knife, and pathological evidence.
He asked for permission for a judicial review to hopefully hold a fresh inquest before the chief coroner or a judge, with Mrs Justice Heather Williams deciding to grant permission for the review. As she left the courtroom, a round of applause broke out from the Makki family and their supporters.
Yousef's father said afterwards: "There's still a long way to go but it's a small step in the right direction."
Mr Stanbury said: "Today is a significant step forward and we are optimistic about getting a fresh inquest."
Following November's inquest, 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 formal application for a judicial review, written by Pete Weatherby QC on behalf of the family after representing them at the inquest, said that the coroner's ruling was 'unreasonable' because it 'failed to address or make findings on central matters in the case such as to enable her to reach a conclusion - on the balance of probabilities - as to the lawfulness of the killing'.
The QC's application said that the coroner 'failed to address or offer any analysis' about Joshua Molnar's credibility, the state of his mind at the time of the incident, and whether he produced a knife before Yousef, or if Yousef had even drawn a knife at all. A date and venue for the judicial review are yet to be determined.
Molnar's co-defendant at the 2019 trial, Adam Chowdhary, also 17 at the time but 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.
