A teenager who lied to police after he killed grammar school pupil Yousef Makki has been sentenced at Manchester Crown Court.
The 17-year-old, known during the trial as Boy A, stabbed Makki, also 17, in the heart with a flick knife in the upmarket village of Hale Barns, Cheshire, on March 2.
In a trial earlier this month, Boy A, was found not guilty of Makki’s murder. He was also found not guilty of an alternative charge of manslaughter.
A second youth, also aged 17, was found not guilty of perverting the course of justice and not guilty of conspiracy to rob.
The teenagers had previously admitted possessing a knife and Boy A pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice by lying to police.
Neither of the defendants, both of whom are from wealthy Cheshire families, can be named as they are aged under 18.
During sentencing, Boy A was a 16-month detention and training order in which he will spend eight months in custody.
Boy B was sentenced to a four-month detention training order after he pleaded guilty to carrying a knife.
He will also spend half of that sentence in custody, with the remaining time spent under the supervision of youth offending teams in the community.
Sentencing, Mr Justice Bryan told the pair: “From the evidence I have heard in the course of your trial, it is clear that both of you had an unhealthy fixation with knives which is all too common amongst the youth of today.
“It must stop. There is nothing cool about knives. Their carrying all too often leads to their use and to tragedy, and it is a fallacy that they can keep you safe – very much the reverse, as events all too often demonstrate.”
Both defendants, wearing suits, showed no reaction as they left the dock.
The jury heard the stabbing was an “accident waiting to happen” as all three youths indulged in “idiotic fantasies” playing middle class gangsters.
Despite the privileged backgrounds of both defendants they led “double lives”, the court heard.
Calling each other “Bro” and “Fam” and the police “Feds”, the defendants and Yousef smoked cannabis, road around on bikes and listened to rap or drill music.
They would post videos on social media, making threats and posing with “shanks”, or knives, the court heard.
Alistair Webster QC, defending Boy A, said the teenager had “undergone the trauma of a murder trial”.
He said: “He does not seek to underplay the serious nature of his role in the death of his friend.
“He does have genuine insight and regret into the consequences of his actions. He knows that for Yousef’s family and many members of the public a custodial sentence is the only way they will feel that justice will be served. Any sentence he will receive will never be long enough.”
He submitted that his client’s integration back into society had been made more difficult by the “criminal misbehaviour of self-righteous armchair warriors who despite court orders have published details of him and his family”.
He added: “That has been aggravated by a local member of Parliament – who really should know better – by raising the issue of possible racial basis which will come as a surprise to the ethnically mixed jury. A singularly unfortunate pronouncement based on ignorance of the facts which has simply fanned the flames.”
Following the verdicts, Labour’s Manchester Central MP, Lucy Powell, tweeted: “You do have to ask if these defendants were black, at state school and from, say, moss side whether they would have been acquitted …”
Eleanor Laws QC, defending Boy B, said character witnesses had described him as “gentle, pleasant and caring” which was also reflected in his pre-sentence report and that he had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder.
The families of both teenage defendants were in the public gallery but Makki’s family chose to boycott the sentencing.
When Boy A was found not guilty of his murder on July 12, the verdict was met with anger. Yousef’s father Ghaleb Makki exploded in court, shouting: “Fuck you! Where’s the justice for my son! Where’s the justice?”
On Wednesday evening ahead of the sentencing, about 120 people including Makki’s family gathered outside Manchester Crown Court, demonstrating “for justice”.
The crowd held signs with the the killed teenager’s photo on saying “Justice for Yousef Makki” and chanted: “No justice, no peace.”.
Nighat Awan, who took part in the demonstration, told BBC News: “We’re hearing of knife crime every day of the week. There are ways, without it costing a fortune, to curtail this.
“Our kids are good kids, poor and rich, it’s just the wrong person, the wrong time... and that’s how it can happen to any of us.”