The family of Yousef Makki have urged a coroner considering his fatal 2019 stabbing to return an unlawful killing verdict.
Yousef, a 17-year-old bursary student at Manchester Grammar School from Burnage, died after being stabbed in the heart by friend Joshua Molnar in Hale Barns, Trafford, on March 2, 2019.
Mr Molnar, also 17 at the time but now 20, from Hale, was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter following a trial at Manchester Crown Court.
READ MORE: Pal who stabbed Yousef Makki tells inquest: "Yousef did not deserve to die"
Giving evidence on Friday, he insisted he could not recall whether he or Yousef had pulled out a knife first and he described the incident as 'a really small clash'.
Today his QC insisted the death was a 'terrible accident'.
At his 2019 trial Mr Molnar admitted possessing the knife which inflicted the fatal injury, as well as lying to police at the scene.
He was sentenced to a 16-month detention and training order before being released last February.
His co-defendant Adam Chowdhary, also 17 at the time but now 19, from Hale Barns, was acquitted of perverting the course of justice and told police he did not see what had happened.
He was given a four-month detention order after admitting possession of a flick knife.
Mr Chowdhary had alleged he and Yousef had 'jointly' purchased two flick-knives - including the one that inflicted the fatal injury - a few weeks before the stabbing on a phone while they were in the MGS canteen during a break.
He told the inquest on Friday he didn't see the moment of the stabbing as he had been looking at his phone, and insisted that, when he suggested to officers at the scene that the culprits had driven away in a car, he had just 'reiterated' what he had heard Mr Molnar telling a security guard who was quickly on the scene.
After the stabbing, he told the inquest Yousef didn't have a knife in his hand and that Yousef produced the knife - with its blade retracted - from his pocket, which he said he took as an invitation to throw it down a grid in the road.
As the sixth day of the inquest began at Stockport Coroners' Court on Monday afternoon, Senior South Manchester Coroner Alison Mutch was urged by the Makki family to return an unlawful killing verdict.
Pete Weatherby QC, for the Makki family, referred the coroner to recent case law which he said changed the burden of proof that had to be applied in two specific verdicts - unlawful killing and suicide - from 'beyond a reasonable doubt' to the 'balance of probabilities'.
It 'definitively' changed the burden of proof to be applied, he said.
The QC added that the fact Joshua Molnar was acquitted at trial 'is irrelevant here' and he noted that an unlawful killing verdict was not 'framed' against any named individual in coroners' courts.
"We say it's definitively not inconsistent with the criminal verdicts in this case for there to be a finding of unlawful killing verdict," said Mr Weatherby.
The QC said: "The jury (in the criminal trial) may well have formed the view Mr Molnar probably committed one of the homicide offences but could not exclude the possibility of self-defence and were required by law to acquit."
Mr Weatherby said there were no 'logical or legal inconsistencies' in coming to an unlawful killing verdict and there was no logical or legal reason why 'two different tribunals should not reach different conclusions where different standards of proof apply'.
Nicholas Corsellis QC, for Chowdhary, argued any conclusion reached could not be 'inconsistent' with verdicts from previous criminal proceedings.
He said the realistic conclusion that can be reached 'is the question of accident', and not lawful or unlawful killing.
He said the incident itself was 'a short-lived incident whereby there's an accidental coming together'.
He conceded, when pressed by the coroner, an open verdict and a narrative conclusion were also possible conclusions open to the coroner, but the QC insisted it would be unlawful to reach an unlawful killing verdict.
Alistair Webster QC, for Molnar, argued the law would be 'brought into disrepute' if there was an unlawful killing verdict which, in this case, could only refer to someone who has been previously acquitted, his client.
He said he had told the 2019 jury it was a 'terrible accident' and he said this was the conclusion he invited the coroner to consider.
The inquest resumes on Wednesday afternoon when Ms Mutch will deliver her conclusions.
