Yousef Makki: Judge grants permission for full judicial review into inquest
18.05.2022 - 16:35
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A judge has granted permission for a full judicial review into the inquest of Yousef Makki.
The family of the 17-year-old - who was fatally stabbed in Hale Barns in 2019 - pushed for a review to quash the narrative conclusion recorded by a coroner following a seven-day inquest in November. They described the conclusion as 'disgusting' after Senior South Manchester Coroner Alison Mutch said she could not safely conclude the death was either unlawful or accidental.
An application was made to High Court by a QC acting for Yousef's father Ghaleb Makki. Today (May 18), at the Manchester Civil Justice Centre, the review was granted.
READ MORE: Disturbing pictures the family of Yousef Makki want all parents to see
Yousef, a talented bursary student at the elite Manchester Grammar School from Burnage, was fatally stabbed through the heart by his friend Joshua Molnar, a former public schoolboy from a wealthy Hale family, during a confrontation in Hale Barns on March 2, 2019.
A jury acquitted Molnar, now 20, of murder and manslaughter later that year, although he was handed a 16-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'.
At the hearing in the High Court today, Matthew Stanbury, representing the Makki family, claimed the coroner's ruling - that what happened could not be known - was 'inevitable' due to the failure to analyse and 'grapple' with central issues in the case. Mr Stanbury said the issues included Molnar's credibility and 'numerous lies', his state of mind at the time of the stabbing, the question of who was the first to