Yousef Makki inquest: Stabbed schoolboy was 'peacemaker'

Yousef Makki was a pupil at Manchester Grammar School

A grammar school scholarship boy who was stabbed by his ex-public school friend was a "peacemaker", his sister told the inquest into his death.

Yousef Makki, 17, a pupil at Manchester Grammar School, was stabbed by Joshua Molnar during a fight in Hale Barns, Greater Manchester, in March 2019.

Molnar, who was also 17 at the time, was cleared of murder later that year.

Jade Akoum told Stockport Coroner's Court Yousef was "everything you would want in a brother or son".

Molnar, from a wealthy Cheshire family, was acquitted of murder and manslaughter by a jury following a four-week trial at Manchester Crown Court.

He claimed self-defence and said Yousef had pulled a knife on him.

Molnar admitted possession of a knife and perverting the course of justice by initially lying to police about what had happened, and was given 16 months in custody.

Yousef's family claim some matters presented to the jury at the trial were done on a "false premise" and the full truth has not been aired.

The inquest was delayed when it later emerged after the trial that Molnar was facing further criminal charges over handling an iPhone stolen in a violent robbery in Wilmslow weeks before Yousef's death, although Molnar was not involved in the mugging.

Yousef Makki had a brilliant mind, the inquest heard

Cheshire Police referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct over the Wilmslow investigation.

Mrs Akoum was asked by the family's lawyer Pete Weatherby QC whether her brother was ever interested in knives, had a "hot temper" or got into fights.

She replied: "He was a peacemaker. He was everything you would want in a brother or son.

"Every day we miss him. It is a huge void we will never get back."

Yousef's mother Debbie Makki, 55, gave a statement about her son before her death in May last year.

It read: "I don't think people realise how something like this affects your whole life."

The inquiry heard Yousef was from humble beginnings, from a single-parent Anglo-Lebanese family, but had a brilliant mind.

His mother "scrimped and saved" to buy his £1,000 school uniform after he won a scholarship to the £12,000-a-year Manchester Grammar School.

On the night Yousef was stabbed, he and Molnar and another boy, Adam Chowdhary, had been together before a row developed.

Molnar said Yousef pulled out a knife and he pulled out his and the two came together, with Yousef being fatally stabbed, suffering a 4.7in (12cm) deep wound.

Dr Charles Wilson, the pathologist who carried out the post mortem examination, said the knife had gone between Yousef's ribs, through cartilage and his heart, causing catastrophic injuries.

Dr Wilson told the hearing a "moderate" degree of force would be needed to cause such a wound.

He added: "It would be impossible to inflict an injury like this without firmly holding on to the knife."

The inquest continues.