News
Full judicial review into inquest of Yousef Makki granted by judge
JUST IN
A judge has granted permission for a full judicial review into the inquest of Burnage schoolboy Yousef Makki.
The family of the seventeen-year-old – who died after being stabbed by friend Joshua Molnar in Hale Barnes in 2019 – called for a review to overturn the coroner’s verdict on his death, which failed to conclude whether he had died either unlawfully or accidentally.
An application was made to High Court by a QC acting for Yousef’s father, Ghaleb Makki and, today (May 18th), at the Manchester Civil Justice Centre, the review was granted.
Yousef’s father said of the decision: “There’s still a long way to go, but it’s a small step in the right direction.”
Matthew Stanbury, representing the Makki family, claimed the coroner’s ruling was ‘inevitable’ due to the failure to analyse and ‘grapple’ with central issues in the case.
Mr. Stanbury said: “Today is a significant step forward and we are optimistic about getting a fresh inquest.”
Yousef died after being fatally stabbed in the heart by Joshua following an argument on the evening of March 2nd 2019.
The former public school student had met Joshua at Manchester Grammar School, where he had won a bursary to attend.
Joshua, who comes from a wealthy family in Hale, later admitted to stabbing Makki with a knife he had bought online ‘with ease’ during a school break time.
Justice for Yousef Makki / Facebook
However, a jury acquitted Joshua, now twenty, of murder and manslaughter later that year, with him instead been handed a sixteen-month detention and training order after admitting possessing the knife which inflicted the fatal injury and lying to police at the scene.
He says he acted in self-defence, alleging Yousef pushed and punched him and called him ‘p*ssy’.
Following November’s inquest, Senior South Manchester Coroner Alison Mutch recorded a narrative conclusion, saying: “Yousef died from complications of a stab wound to chest.
“The precise circumstances in which he was wounded cannot, on balance of probabilities, be ascertained.”
The family’s formal application argued the coroner’s ruling was ‘unreasonable’ as it ‘failed to address or make findings on central matters in the case such as to enable her to reach a conclusion – on the balance of probabilities – as to the lawfulness of the killing’.