A judge condemned knife crime as a “cancer on society” as he detained two teenagers over the fatal stabbing of a private school pupil who was an aspiring heart surgeon.
Yousef Makki, 17, died from a single stab wound to the heart following an argument with a friend, known as Boy A, in an upmarket part of Greater Manchester on 2 March.
Boy A, 17, admitted stabbing Makki but said he acted in self-defence and denied murder. He was found not guilty of both murder and manslaughter following a trial at Manchester crown court.
The teenager was sentenced to a 16-month detention training order after admitting perverting the course of justice and possession of a bladed article. He will spend half of that sentence in custody.
The boy, dressed in a suit and tie, stared straight ahead and gave no reaction as he was led to the court cells, while members of his family sobbed and hugged each other in the public gallery.
The judge, Mr Justice Simon Bryan QC, condemned what he described as a “warped culture where possession of knives is deemed to be cool and aesthetically pleasing” as he sentenced the defendants.
Boy B was sentenced to a four-month detention training order after he pleaded guilty to carrying a knife. He too will spend half of that sentence in custody, and the remaining half under the supervision of youth offending teams in the community.
Makki was from a single-parent, Anglo-Lebanese family in the Burnage area of south Manchester and had won a scholarship to attend Manchester Grammar School. Just days before his death he had attended a talk on studying at Oxford or Cambridge universities.
The trial heard how Makki died after a row with his friends, Boy A and Boy B, also 17, following a botched attempt to rob a drug dealer of £45-worth of cannabis in the leafy village of Hale Barns.
Their attempted robbery failed and Boy A was attacked, leading to a later confrontation with Makki. Boy A told the jury he pulled out a flick-knife because Makki had produced a knife – a claim denied by the victim’s family – and Boy A said he then accidentally stabbed his friend in self-defence.
The judge said the background to the case was “depressingly all too familiar” and that carrying knives, mixed with drugs and drug-dealing, was a “recipe for disaster”. He said: “It must stop. There is nothing cool about knives.”
The judge added: “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.
“Knife crime is a cancer on society, and it affects all spectrums of society – the message that must be brought home is that knives kill, and knives ruin lives. The best legacy of Yousef’s tragic death would be if this message could be got across – and knives regarded as ‘uncool’ by the young in society going forward.”
Makki’s family boycotted the sentencing in order to “make a stand” against Boy A’s acquittal. Amid chants of “Justice for Yousef”, a 200-strong crowd made up of family members, schoolmates and supporters gathered on the steps of Manchester crown court to express their disappointment that no one has been found responsible for Makki’s killing.
Makki’s elder sister, Jade Akoum, 28, told the Guardian that the family would keep fighting for justice, whether it was through civil action or whatever other avenue possible.
Boy A’s barrister, Alistair Webster QC, said the teenager had expressed “genuine insight and regret” about the consequences of his actions and that he “does not seek to underplay the serious nature of his role in the death of his friend”.
Webster said Boy A had acknowledged that his sentence for carrying a knife and perverting the course of justice “will never be long enough” for Makki’s family or the wider public.
The defence barristers said the two 17-year-olds saw carrying knives as “something of a joke” and that they had not acknowledged the dangers “despite their intelligence”.
“Although the consequences weren’t intended, they do of course vividly illustrate the dangers of carrying knives,” he said.
The trial had heard that Boy B bought two knives they carried on the day of Makki’s death from an app called Wish. Giving evidence during the trial, Boy A said he found the blades “cool” and “sleek” and that he carried one for protection.
Eleanor Laws, representing Boy B, told the court that her client had never carried a knife before that day and was of positive good character and had no criminal record.
He was a “hard-working, pleasant, gentle, kind, caring” boy who had been left with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression following his friend’s death.
Webster said Boy A was at risk of serious harm and that he had been identified online by “self-righteous armchair warriors”, adding that this risk had been “exacerbated by the local member of parliament, who really should know better” – a reference to the Labour MP Lucy Powell who suggested jurors may have reached a different conclusion had Boy A been “black, at state school and from, say, Moss Side”.
