Yousef Makki: Teenager cleared of murder after stabbing school friend in heart with flick knife
Not guilty verdict sparks furious reaction from victim’s father: ‘Where’s the justice for my son?’
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A teenager has been cleared of murdering the schoolboy friend he stabbed in the heart with a flick knife.
The boy, aged 17, knifed Yousef Makki, also 17, on a street in the upmarket village of Hale Barns in Cheshire on 2 March.
The defendant – known only as boy A because he is aged under 18 – was cleared of murder and manslaughter charges following a four-week trial at Manchester Crown Court, having argued he had acted in self-defence.
Yousef’s father Ghaleb Makki exploded in anger at the verdict, leading Mr Justice Bryan to clear the courtroom. “Where’s the justice for my son? Where’s the justice?” shouted Mr Makki.
Boy A admitted perverting the course of justice by lying to police and possession of a flick knife.
Another 17-year-old, known as Boy B, was cleared of perverting the course of justice by allegedly lying to police about what he had seen, but also admitted possession of a flick knife.
The jury heard the stabbing was an “accident waiting to happen” as the defendants indulged in “idiotic fantasies” playing middle class gangsters.
Despite the privileged backgrounds of both, they led “double lives”. Calling each other “Bro” and “Fam” and the police “Feds”, the defendants smoked cannabis, road around on bikes, “chilling” and listened to rap or drill music.
Yousef, from an Anglo-Lebanese family from Burnage in south Manchester, had won a scholarship to the prestigious £12,000-a-year Manchester Grammar School.
The court heard the background to the fatal stabbing on Gorse Bank Road was that hours earlier, Boy B arranged a £45 cannabis deal and the teenagers planned to rob the drug dealer, a “soft target”; this was disputed by the defence and not accepted by the jury.
Boy A broke down in tears telling the jury: “I have got more annoyed. I have taken it out straight away, I don’t really know what I did, kind of lifted my arm up. I didn’t realise anything had happened at first.”
A local man passing by, a heart surgeon, performed emergency surgery in the back of an ambulance but Yousef suffered catastrophic blood loss.
The jury also saw social media videos of Boy A posing and brandishing knives and machetes. Nicholas Johnson QC, prosecuting, said the videos showed him “acting out something that ultimately led to the death of Yousef Makki”.
“He was too quick to reach for his knife and too quick to use it, probably because it was a move he had practised for so long. It was a petulant, malicious response of a wannabe hard man who had lost face and could not get his own way.”
Alastair Webster QC, defending boy A, described the videos as “ridiculous” and told the jury it was just juvenile “middle class gangsters” striking poses.
He added: “In my day you went around with long hair calling everyone 'man'. Now it seems everyone wants to play a New York City gangster. Middle class gangsters.”
A statement released by the family of boy A, said: “Obviously we welcome the verdicts. The jury came to proper conclusions on the evidence. There are, however, no winners in this case.
“Yousef’s death was a tragedy and our son will have to live with the responsibility of his role for the rest of his life. But the Makki family’s loss and hurt are infinitely greater. Nothing we can say can make up for that or change it.”
Both defendants still face sentencing for possession of the flick knives, purchased by boy B from an app called Wish, and boy A also faces sentence for perverting the course of justice. They were also cleared of conspiracy to commit robbery in the lead up to Yousef’s death.
Additional reporting by PA