A bereaved father has delivered an emotional outburst as a 17-year-old boy was found not guilty of the murder of his teenage son.
Yousef Makki, 17, was stabbed in the heart with a flick-knife in Hale Barns, Cheshire, in March.
On Friday as a teenage boy was found not guilty of his murder, Yousef’s father Ghaleb Makki exploded in fury, shouting: “Fuck you! Where’s the justice for my son! Where’s the justice?”
The same boy was also found not guilty of an alternative charge of manslaughter. A second youth, aged 17, was found not guilty of perverting the course of justice and not guilty of conspiracy to rob. Neither of the defendants, both of whom are from wealthy Cheshire families, can be named as they are aged under 18.
Boy A puffed out his cheeks and closed his eyes as he was cleared by the jury forewoman and was then hugged by his tearful family in the public gallery at Manchester Crown Court.
Following Mr Makki’s outburst, another voice was heard saying: “Are you joking?” as the not guilty verdicts were delivered as the judge, Mr Justice Bryan, cleared the courtroom.
Yousef, from a single-parent Anglo-Lebanese family from Burnage, south Manchester, had won a scholarship to the prestigious £12,000-a-year Manchester Grammar School.
The jury heard the stabbing was an “accident waiting to happen” as all three indulged in “idiotic fantasies” playing middle class gangsters.
Despite the privileged backgrounds of both defendants, they led “double lives”.
Calling each other “Bro” and “Fam” and the police “Feds”, the defendants and Yousef smoked cannabis, road around on bikes, “chilling” and listened to rap or drill music.
They would post videos on social media, making threats and posing with “shanks” or knives.
Boy A denied murder on March 2, claiming he acted in self-defence.
He admitted perverting the course of justice by lying to police and possession of a flick knife.
Boy B, was cleared of perverting the course of justice by allegedly lying to police about what he had seen but also admitted possession of a flick knife.
Both were also cleared of conspiracy to commit robbery in the lead up to Yousef’s death.
Both defendants still face sentencing for possession of the flick knives, purchased by boy B from an app called Wish, and boy A also faces sentence for perverting the course of justice.
The court heard the background to the fatal stabbing on Gorse Bank Road, Hale Barns, was that hours earlier, Boy B arranged a £45 cannabis deal and the teenagers planned to rob the drug dealer, a “soft target”.
But the robbery went wrong and Yousef and Boy B fled, leaving Boy A to take a beating.
Boy A then later pushed Yousef who called him a “pussy” and punched him in the face.
He told the jury Yousef pulled out a knife and he responded by also taking out a knife and his victim was accidentally stabbed.
Boy A broke down in tears telling the jury: “I have got more annoyed. I have taken it out straight away, I don’t really know what I did, kind of lifted my arm up.
“I didn’t realise anything had happened at first.”
As the victim lay dying, the panicking defendants hid the knives in bushes and down a drain, dialled 999 and desperately tried to staunch the blood pouring out of Yousef’s chest wound.
A local man passing by, a heart surgeon, performed emergency surgery in the back of an ambulance but Yousef suffered catastrophic blood loss.
They told police scrambled to the scene they had found Yousef stabbed and suggested others were responsible.
The jury also saw social media videos of Boy A posing and brandishing knives and machetes.
Nicholas Johnson QC, prosecuting, said the videos showed him “acting out something that ultimately led to the death of Yousef Makki”.
“He was too quick to reach for his knife and too quick to use it, probably because it was a move he had practised for so long.
“It was a petulant, malicious response of a wannabe hardman who had lost face and could not get his own way.”
Jurors also heard from another youngster who said at a house party he was beaten by a gang of boys including Boy A, who then pulled out a knife.
A second youth present at the time, told the jury: “I don’t think many of the people in that situation had experienced that, I think everyone was shocked by the situation and stopped what they were doing.”
Alastair Webster QC, defending boy A, described the videos as “ridiculous” and told the jury it was just juvenile “Middle class gangsters” striking poses.
He added: “In my day you went around with long hair calling everyone ‘man’.
“Now it seems everyone wants to play a New York City gangster. Middle class gangsters.
“If they were dropped off in one of the rougher areas of Manchester...It’s fine being a gangster in Cheshire.”