A fresh inquest has been ordered into the death of a teenager who was stabbed after a row with an ex-public schoolboy in upmarket Cheshire village Hale Barns.
Yousef Makki, 17, was stabbed after rowing with his friend, Joshua Molnar, also 17 at the time, on the evening of March 2, 2019.
Yousef, from a one-parent family, who won a scholarship to attend £12,000-a-year Manchester Grammar School, died soon afterwards.
Molnar, from a wealthy Cheshire family, was cleared of murder and manslaughter by a jury at his trial later that year.
After a two-week inquest in November 2021, Alison Mutch, senior coroner for south Manchester, ruled out both unlawful killing and accidental death as reasons for Yousef’s death, saying she could not establish the precise sequence of events leading up to the fatal incident.
But Yousef’s family, from Burnage, Manchester, brought a judicial review in 2022, challenging the coroner’s finding that there was an insufficiency of evidence on the “central issue”, of whether the killing was unlawful.
On Friday, Lady Justice Macur and Mr Justice Fordham, handed down their ruling at the High Court in Manchester, quashing the conclusions of the first inquest and ordering a fresh inquest before a different coroner.
Jade Akoum, Yousef’s older sister, said outside the court: “We are very grateful to the judges for today recognising that the coroner’s conclusion was unlawful, and for the compassion and understanding that they showed us during the judicial review hearing.
“We now look forward to a new inquest before a different coroner, which we hope and pray will establish clearly the facts about how Yousef died.”
Peter Weatherby KC, representing the family of Yousef Makki at the original inquest in November 2021, had questioned the “fanciful” version of events presented as having happened on the night and said there were “discrepancies” between what was said in court during the trial and the version of events given at the inquest.
Mr Wetherby told the judicial review hearing: “This is a death caused by an unlawful weapon brandished in the street by Joshua Molnar and unless there was some terrible accident or unless Yousef Makki put him in fear, this was an unlawful killing and the coroner simply fails to address those issues in her decision.”
Molnar had claimed self-defence and told his trial that knives were produced after they argued and there was a “coming together”, the court heard.
Molnar, Yousef and another youth, Adam Chowdhary, then 17, had all carried knives that night.
Yousef had become friends with Chowdhary, whose family own property and businesses, while at Manchester Grammar School.
All three acted out the role of “middle class gangsters”, Molnar’s trial heard.
Chowdhary had bought two flick knives from an online website, Wish, for himself and Yousef, and told police he did not see what had happened between Yousef and Molnar.
Molnar was jailed for 16 months for possession of a knife in a public place and perverting the course of justice by lying to police at the scene.
Chowdhary was cleared of perverting the course of justice by the jury at his trial but admitted possession of a flick knife and was given a four-month detention order.
In their ruling, the High Court judges said the coroner’s inquiry was “insufficiently distilled” and lacking some explanation as to how she reached her conclusions.
They added: “Consequently, whilst I do not consider that the evidence necessarily all points in one direction, neither can I be satisfied that Her Majesty’s Senior Coroner (HMSC) has assessed all relevant evidence or analysed the findings of fact she made.
“HMSC’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.”
A date for the new inquest has yet to be made.
