Judges order fresh inquest into death of 17-year-old fatally stabbed in village

Yousef Makki, 17, was stabbed to death in an upmarket Cheshire village in 2019.

Undated family handout file photo issued by Greater Manchester Police of 17-year-old Yousef Ghaleb Makki from Burnage. A second inquest has been ordered into the death of teenager, Yousef Makki, stabbed to death in Hale Barns in 2019, law lords have ruled at the High Court in Manchester. Issue date: Friday January 20, 2023. (PA Media)

A fresh inquest is to be held into the death of teenager Yousef Makki, 17, who was stabbed to death in an upmarket Cheshire village.

High Court judges quashed the original inquest findings, in which a coroner ruled out both unlawful killing and accidental death as reasons for Yousef’s death on March 2 2019.

Yousef was stabbed by ex-public schoolboy Joshua Molnar, aged 17, at the time, who claimed self-defence and was acquitted of murder and manslaughter after a trial, three months after Yousef’s death.

Yousef’s family, from Burnage, Manchester, brought a judicial review in 2022 following the first inquest, challenging the coroner’s finding that there was an insufficiency of evidence on the “central issue” of whether the killing was unlawful.

On Friday Lady Justice Macur and Mr Justice Fordham handed down their ruling at the High Court in Manchester, quashing the conclusions of the first inquest and ordering a fresh inquest before a different coroner.