A coroner probing the death of Yousef Makki was warned that other children could be killed amid a deadly knife culture in which young people view carrying weapons as 'impressive'.
Senior South Manchester Coroner Alison Mutch has called on the government to take action after finding the schoolboy was killed with a weapon 'purchased with ease' during a school breaktime.
Yousef, a talented 17-year-old bursary student at Manchester Grammar School, was stabbed to death by his friend Joshua Molnar in Hale Barns on March 2, 2019.
Molnar, from a wealthy Hale family, was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter following a trial at Manchester Crown Court in 2019, telling the jury he had acted in self-defence.
Now 20, he repeated the evidence he gave at trial, explaining to a recent inquest into Yousef's death that his friend had called him 'p*ssy', pushed and punched him during a clash, and saying he wasn't sure who had pulled a knife first.
Following a seven-day inquest at Stockport Coroners' Court in November, senior coroner Alison Mutch recorded a narrative verdict, saying she could not safely conclude that the death was either unlawful or accidental.
Ms Mutch has now written to Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi to raise concerns over knife culture among young people.
In a report published last Friday (January 7), she said: "The inquest heard evidence that there was a culture amongst some teenagers who saw the possession of knives as being impressive and did not understand the risks that are inherent in the carrying of knives."
"The knife that Yousef was stabbed with was a [redacted word] that had been purchased with ease during break time at school.
"It was clear from the evidence that schools and education play a vital role in attitudes to carrying knives by teenagers."
Ms Mutch recorded a narrative verdict that Yousef died from 'complications from a stab wound the precise circumstances of which cannot on the balance of probabilities be ascertained'.
Yousef's sister Jade Akoum branded the coroner's verdict 'disgusting' and vowed that the family fight for justice would continue.
Following the 2019 trial, a jury acquitted Molner of murder and manslaughter, but he was handed a 16-month detention and training order after admitting possessing the knife which inflicted the fatal injury and lying to police at the scene.
His co-defendant, Adam Chowdhary, also 17 at the time but now 19, from Hale Barns, who described Yousef as his 'best friend' at MGS, was acquitted of perverting the course of justice.
He was given a four-month detention order after admitting possession of a flick knife, one of two he claimed he and Yousef had jointly ordered during a break from lessons at MGS.
