The family of a teenage boy who was stabbed in the heart by his friend said they have finally got justice after a coroner ruled that he was unlawfully killed. Joshua Molnar was cleared of the murder and manslaughter of his friend Yousef Makki, 17, after a trial at Manchester crown court in July 2019. Greater Manchester police (GMP) said it would “carefully review the ruling”, along with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), to decide whether to reopen the investigation into the 17-year-old’s death in Hale Barns, an affluent suburb of Trafford in Greater Manchester, on 2 March 2019. Molnar, now 22, always insisted he acted in self-defence when he stabbed Yousef after an “altercation” over a botched drug deal, in which Yousef called him “a pussy”. He could face a second trial if appeal court judges rule there is “compelling new evidence” to put to a fresh jury. The case has been cited by a member of Labour’s frontbench as an example of how the criminal justice system favours wealthy white defendants and discriminates against victims from poorer, ethnic minority backgrounds. Yousef was from an Anglo-Libyan family and lived in a council house in Burnage, south Manchester. He had won a scholarship to Manchester grammar school, a private school. The conclusion of unlawful killing was returned at a second inquest into Yousef’s death on Wednesday, prompting applause in the public gallery at South Manchester coroner’s court. The fresh inquest was held after a long campaign by Yousef’s family, notably his elder sister Jade Akoum, who described him as “the most wonderful, intelligent, sporty and inspirational boy”. In January high court judges quashed the conclusion of the first coroner, Alison Saunders, who said she could not establish the precise circumstances that had led to Yousef being fatally stabbed in the chest. Molnar, who was 17 at the time of the killing and comes from an affluent background, was cleared of murder and manslaughter after a trial at Manchester crown court in 2019. The jury heard that he had become fixated with knives, living out “idiotic fantasies” of being a middle-class gangster, along with his co-defendant, Adam Chowdhary, Yousef’s best friend from Manchester grammar. Molnar was jailed for 16 months for carrying a knife in public and perverting the course of justice after initially lying to police at the scene about what had happened. Chowdhary was given a four-month detention order after admitting possessing the knife that ultimately killed Yousef, but was cleared by the trial jury of perverting the course of justice. The Manchester Central MP, Lucy Powell, the shadow leader of the House of Commons, has repeatedly raised the case as an example of how the criminal justice system favours wealthy white defendants. Referencing the killing at an event at the Labour party conference in Liverpool earlier this month, Powell said: “If you’re 17, 18, and you’re white and from a leafy suburb, you are playing at being in a gang, but if you’re a young black person in central Manchester you are not playing, you are obviously in a gang.” The case was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary last year called Killed by a Rich Kid. Seeing Molnar acquitted was “worse than a nightmare”, Akoum told reporters on Wednesday. She said she believed “classism” played a “huge” role in the outcome of the criminal trial. “I do think it could have played out differently had the defendants been from a normal council house background like us,” she said. She added: “I finally feel like now we can move on with our lives because we have proven that Yousef has been unlawfully killed. I once thought that justice meant Joshua Molnar being in prison for the rest of his life. I now believe justice is what we have received here today and for him to have to live his life knowing forever that his actions took Yousef away from us.” Pete Weatherby KC, who represented Yousef’s family, said: “Justice has finally been done and not before time. It has been a long, long journey for a family who have been terribly wronged.” Asked what would happen next, Weatherby said: “Whenever there’s an unlawful killing conclusion in an inquest, then the relevant authorities – the police and the CPS – look again at the case … There has to be compelling fresh evidence for a prosecution to be reopened.” Asked whether such evidence had emerged at the inquest, he said: “I think really that’s an assessment for the police and CPS.” In a lengthy ruling delivered at south Manchester coroner’s court on Wednesday, the coroner Geraint Williams concluded that while Yousef did have a knife on the day of the killing, he had not waved it at Molnar, and it had been in his jacket pocket when he was stabbed. Consequently, Molnar had not acted in self-defence, Williams ruled. However, Molnar “did not intend to directly or obliquely kill Yousef or cause him serious harm”, Williams added. Williams ruled that Molnar had shown “calculated deceit” in hiding two knives in gardens nearby, before lying to the police about others being responsible for the killing, blaming “four black guys”. Explaining why he lied, Molnar told the second inquest: “I was a stupid 17-year-old who didn’t have time to weigh up the positives and negatives.” Williams found Molnar “an articulate and intelligent young man” but described Chowdhary’s evidence as “self-serving and disingenuous”. The coroner dismissed Chowdhary’s claim to have not seen the stabbing, and suggested that then, as now, Chowdhary was frightened of Molnar. Chowdhary admitted arranging the drug deal on the day of the murder, and ordering £90 worth of cannabis – more money than he had. When his dealer turned up with two other men, he panicked and ran away, leaving his two friends alone. The men beat up Molnar and stole his £2,000 bike, the court heard. Annoyed with Yousef for not intervening and angry with Chowdhary for running off, Molnar forced Chowdhary to hand over his jacket as “surety”, Williams ruled. This led to an “altercation” in the street in Hale Barns, which led Molnar to draw his knife, and ultimately to Yousef’s death. Responding to the unlawful killing conclusion, Powell said on X, formerly known as Twitter: “I hope this outcome will give Yousef’s family some comfort that the truth is recorded. But this case still raises questions about our criminal justice system and I hope the reviews which follow will lead to changes.” A CPS spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with the family of Yousef Makki who suffered such a devastating loss. We respect the conclusion reached by the coroner who applies a very different test to the one used by the criminal courts. We put the case before a jury, held a full trial in 2019 and the defendant was found not guilty. We respect the verdict of the jury in the criminal case.”