Knife crime ‘is a cancer on society’
Judge slams violence as he locks up teens over death of schoolboy
A JUDGE condemned the ‘cancer’ of knife crime yesterday as he jailed two boys for their roles in the death of a private schoolboy.
The mothers of both youths, who were also privately educated and from wealthy families, sobbed as their sons were led away to the cells.
Yousef Makki, 17, a scholarship pupil at £12,000-a-year Manchester Grammar School, was stabbed through the heart in an altercation with one of the defendants, known as Boy A, in the affluent village of Hale Barns, Cheshire, on March 2.
Boy A was dramatically cleared of murder and manslaughter earlier this month following a four-week trial at Manchester Crown Court after jurors accepted his claim he acted in self-defence.
He admitted charges of possessing a knife and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice by lying to police at the scene of Yousef’s death. The second defendant, known as Boy B, admitted possession of a knife. He had bought two illegal flick knives over the internet from China, one of which was given to Boy A and inflicted the fatal wound.
The two boys, both 17, were also cleared of conspiracy to rob a cannabis dealer. Boy A was locked up for 16 months and Boy B received a four-month sentence.
Yousef’s grieving mother Debbie Makki, 54, said: ‘I’m never going to be pleased with that result because it’s hardly anything. It’s not even part of what Boy A deserves.
‘I want him [Boy A] to go through the pain that me and my family have felt every day since Yousef’s death. I want every moment of the rest of his life to be painful as he thinks about what he has done.’
Mr Justice Bryan called the back
drop to the tragedy ‘ depressingly familiar’ and attacked the ‘warped culture whereby the possession of knives is considered to be cool and aesthetically pleasing, and knives are readily carried on our streets’.
‘Mixing it with drugs and drug dealing, as in this case, it’s a recipe for disaster,’ the judge said.
He described Yousef – a highly intelligent teenager preparing to apply to study at Oxbridge and who wanted to be a heart surgeon – as a boy who had ‘everything to live for’.
The judge told both defendants they ‘have to live with your actions’ over the tragedy.
Mr Justice Bryan attacked the pair’s ‘unhealthy fixation’ with knives, adding: ‘It’s a fallacy they can keep you safe, very much the reverse.
‘Knife crime is a cancer on society, and it affects all spectrums of society – the message that must be brought home is that knives kill, and knives ruin lives. The best legacy of Yousef’s tragic death would be if this message could be got across.’
It came as police said they were investigating a ‘sickening’ video that Boy A uploaded to his social media profile showing him making stabbing gestures with ‘drill music’ playing in the background.
The footage is believed to have been recorded in the Manchester Crown Court building during a break in his trial. Yousef’s family, who have seen the video, said they were ‘sickened’ by it and reported it to police.