Chilling CCTV footage shows the final moments of a teenage boy who was fatally stabbed by one of his friends.
Straight-A grammar school pupil Yousef Makki, 17, from Burnage, south Manchester, died from a stab wound to the heart.
His friend Joshua Molnar, now 20, was unanimously acquitted of murder and manslaughter but handed a 16-month detention and training order after he admitted perverting the course of justice and possessing a flick knife which inflicted the fatal injury.
At an inquest which finished last week, South Manchester’s senior coroner Alison Mutch said she could not safely rule that the death was either unlawful or accidental.
She recorded a narrative conclusion following a seven-day hearing at Stockport Coroner’s Court.
The CCTV footage shows Yousef breaking into a run just seconds before a confrontation with Molnar.
CCTV also shows Molnar backing away from the clash before returning seconds later.
Molnar, a former public schoolboy from a wealthy Hale family, claimed he had acted in self-defence, alleging Yousef pushed and punched him and called him “p***y”.
He was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter following a trial at Manchester Crown Court in 2019.
Molnar told the inquest he wasn’t sure who had pulled a knife first.
During the inquest, the Makki family backed moves for the release of footage seen during evidence.
Coroner Ms Mutch refused to release police body-cam footage but agreed that edited CCTV footage could be released.
After Yousef’s friend Adam Chowdhary had arranged a small cannabis deal, the three went to a country lane near Manchester Airport to collect the drugs.
But Molnar was beaten by two associates of the alleged dealer and had his £2,000 Starling bike was thrown over a hedge.
Molnar said he blamed Chowdhary, who had cycled away from the confrontation, and later took Chowdhary’s £300 jacket as “compensation” until the bike was returned.
He said that while he was annoyed with Chowdhary, he had not been upset with Yousef, who had tried to find his bike, and just wanted to get home as the fight had left him “dazed”.
Molnar told his 2019 trial: “It was more Yousef who wanted me to stay out. I think he just wanted me to find my bike, just get everything sorted so we were all on good terms.
“I just wasn’t really having it. I really wanted to go home, so I started to get a bit more adamant. I was getting a bit more angry, so I’d said: ‘F**k off, I’m going home.’
“Then I believe Yousef’s got a bit annoyed with me. He’s called, he’s called me a p***y.
“I’ve got annoyed at this because obviously, I was the only one that was stood there and got a beating, whilst one of my friends ran off and the other one kind of just watched.”
Chowdhary told the inquest Molnar had been “impressed” when they showed him the flick knives he and Yousef were alleged to have had.
Chowdhary said he and Yousef had jointly ordered the pair of flick knives on Chowdhary’s phone in a break from lessons at Manchester Grammar School a fortnight earlier.
The inquest heard the fatal stabbing occurred, unseen by any camera.
Following his 2019 trial, Molnar was handed 16-month detention and training order after he pleaded guilty to possessing the knife which inflicted the fatal injury and perverting the course of justice by lying to police at the scene.
Chowdhary, now 19, was found not guilty of perverting the course of justice at the 2019 trial. He was given a four-month detention order after he admitted possessing a flick knife.
Yousef’s sister, Jade Akoum, who sat through every day of the inquest, said: “The CCTV speaks for itself. We are an open book.
“We just want the truth. We want everything out there and let people make up their own minds about what’s gone on.”
