Family hoping for ‘justice’ for stabbed student
Coroner rules inquest will go ahead this week
THE family of Yousef Makki hope they will see ‘justice for his memory’ at an inquest into his death, which is due to start tomorrow.
Yousef, a 17-year bursary student at Manchester Grammar School from Burnage, died after being stabbed in the heart by friend Joshua Molnar in Hale Barns, Trafford, on March 2, 2019.
Mr Molnar, also 17 at the time but now 19, from Hale, was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter following a trial at Manchester Crown Court last year.
He told a jury Yousef pulled a knife first and said he acted in selfdefence.
However, he admitted possessing the knife which inflicted the fatal injury, as well as lying to police at the scene.
He was sentenced to a 16-month detention and training order before being released last February.
At a pre-inquest hearing last month Mr Molnar’s lawyer argued there had been ‘no fresh material’ in connection the death and said a full inquest was not justified.
But Coroner Alison Mutch dismissed the application and the full inquest will begin on Monday. It is scheduled to last two weeks.
Yousef’s sister, Jade Akoum, said she hoped the inquest would achieve ‘justice’ for Yousef and their mother Debbie, who died last year.
She died ‘with a broken heart,’ her family said at the time.
Jade told the M.E.N: “We’re so pleased it’s going ahead after so many delays. We’re doing this for justice and to clear his name. I know it meant a lot to his mum who passed away without seeing justice. I’m doing this for both of them really.”
At a hearing at Chester Crown Court in July, Mr Molnar admitted handling stolen goods, an iPone, and was warned by a judge that he must stay out of trouble for 12 months.
While police investigated Yousef’s death, police found the iPhone in a dressing table drawer at Molnar’s home.
Officers were later able to access the phone and learned it belonged to a young man who had been subjected to a ‘violent mugging’ near Wilmslow Leisure Centre on February 17, 2019.
The court heard there was ‘no evidence, no suggestion’ Mr Molnar had been involved in the mugging.
He was handed a 12-month conditional discharge for the offence at Chester Crown Court in July. Last month, Alexander Leach QC told a pre-inquest review at South Manchester Coroner’s Court: “No fresh material has arisen about the circumstances leading to the death of Yousef Makki.”
But coroner Ms Mutch stated the inquest was a ‘fact-finding exercise’ aimed at answering statutory questions.
We’re doing this for justice and to clear his name. It meant a lot to his mum Yousef’s sister Jade