Death of teenager knifed in heart by friend was not accidental or unlawful, coroner rules

The death of a teenager who died after being stabbed in the heart by a friend was not an unlawful killing or accidental, a coroner has concluded.

Yousef Makki, 17, was stabbed to death with a flick knife by Joshua Molnar following a row in the upmarket village of Hale Barns, in Cheshire, on the evening of 2 March 2019.

Molnar, from a wealthy Cheshire family, claimed self-defence and told a jury knives were produced after the pair argued and there was a “coming together”.

He was cleared of murder and manslaughter following a trial at Manchester Crown Court but 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.

Makki’s death has been the subject of an inquest this month.

Lawyers for the Makki family had urged Alison Mutch, senior coroner for Greater Manchester South, that because the standard of proof in criminal trial is “beyond reasonable doubt” while the standard during inquests is lower, being “on the balance of probabilities,” she could conclude Makki was unlawfully killed.

Alistair Webster QC, representing Molnar at the inquest, in final legal submissions to the coroner, said Yousef’s death was simply a “terrible accident”.

At the end of the inquest, lasting seven days, Ms Mutch told Stockport Coroner’s Court she could not be sure, even on the balance of probabilities, the “precise sequence of events” and ruled out both unlawful killing and accidental death as a conclusion.

In a lengthy narrative conclusion, the coroner recorded Makki died from a stab wound to the chest.

She added: “He died from complications of a stab wound to the chest, the precise circumstances of which he was wounded cannot, on the balance of probabilities, be ascertained.”

Ms Mutch said she would write to the education secretary to ask how teenagers’ knowledge of the dangers of carrying knives could be improved – having heard in the inquest how carrying a knife was seen as “cool”.

Molnar and another youth involved in the incident, Adam Chowdhary, had led double lives, playing “middle-class gangsters” smoking cannabis, listening to drill music and carrying knives despite both coming from wealthy Cheshire families and living in a leafy, low-crime area, the trial heard.

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Yousef, from a single-parent family from south Manchester, won a scholarship to the £12,000-a-year Manchester Grammar School, where Chowdhary was also a pupil and they became good friends.

The court heard Chowdhary had bought two flick knives from an online website, Wish, for himself and Makki, and took them out that day to impress Molnar.

The lead-up to Makki’s death has been described as either a drug deal gone wrong or a revenge attack which led to Molnar being beaten up and his £2,000 bike thrown in a hedge while Chowdhary fled and Makki stood by.

Ms Mutch warned the inquest could not be a rerun of the criminal trial and inquests were not allowed in law to apportion criminal blame.

Peter Weatherby QC, representing the family of Yousef, accused Molnar of lying to save his own skin.

Molnar replied: “No. I did not do that at all.”

Sergeant Nicholas Bamber, of GMP, told the inquest that at the crime scene Molnar told “convincing” lies.

Chowdhary told police he did not see what had happened and merely repeated to police at the scene what he was told by Molnar.

He was initially allowed to keep his phone before his status changed from witness, when police first spoke to him, to suspect later that night.

But in between, police found call record logs and other material had been deleted from his phone and detectives could not recover them, the inquest heard.

Adam Chowdhary declined to give evidence from the witness box at his trial alongside Molnar.

Molnar said Makki had taken a knife out but Chowdhary told the inquest he did not see a knife in Makki’s hand after he had been stabbed in the heart.

On the version of events presented in evidence, it means that after being stabbed in the heart Makki retracted the blade of his flick knife and put it in his pocket.

Then, as he lay dying, he took the knife out of his pocket again and handed it to Chowdhary for disposal down a grid before police arrived.

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.

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.

Both were cleared of a charge of conspiracy to robbery.

At a press conference after the inquest, Jade Akoum, Makki’s older sister, said his family was “disgusted”.

“Today, the coroner returned a narrative conclusion rather than a conclusion of unlawful killing, saying that she was not able to determine the precise circumstances in which Yousef came by his death,” she said. “To say that we are disappointed is an understatement. We are disgusted.

“Regardless of the outcome today, it is now clear to us from the evidence that was presented in court that Yousef was clearly trying to make peace between Adam Chowdhary and Joshua Molnar and paid for this with his life.

“Our family, with the support of our legal team and Yousef’s many friends and supporters have battled the justice system since Yousef was killed - and it seems that again, from today onwards, the fight for justice for Yousef Makki will continue. Over the coming days and weeks we will be discussing with our legal team the next steps.

“Yousef was the kindest, most charming young man. He always had a twinkle in his eye and the warmest smile which could instantly make you smile too, no matter what mood you were in.

“This is how we want to remember him, with his warm smile and his caring nature. The last conversation we ever had together was of his dreams of going to Oxford or Cambridge University - a dream that he was very much on track for.”

Additional reporting by Press Association