A coroner has been urged to rule the stabbing of a grammar school boy in an upmarket Cheshire village was an unlawful killing.

Yousef Makki, who was from Burnage and attended Manchester Grammar School, was stabbed in the heart in Hale Barns by his friend, Joshua Molnar, more than four and a half years ago.

An initial inquest into the teenager's death determined the circumstances were not ascertainable on the balance of probabilities, but this was later quashed by the High Court in November 2021.

The High Court was not satisfied the coroner, Alison Mutch, assessed all of the evidence before coming to this conclusion, rather than a conclusion of lawful or unlawful killing.

The ex-public schoolboy said he had acted in self-defence when he stabbed Makki and was cleared by a jury of the murder and manslaughter of his friend on March 2, 2019.

But a second inquest into Makki's death at Stockport Coroner's Court heard Molnar admitted lying about what happened and of "discrepancies" in how he came to stab the youngster with a flick knife.

Molnar told the jury at his trial that the pair had had an argument and Makki had pulled out a knife first so he took his own out and his friend "came on" to his weapon, causing the fatal injury.

Another youth, Adam Chowdhary, was with the pair at the time and said he did not see what happened because he was on his phone.

Chowdhary had bought the flick knives online.

Both Chowdhary and Molnar come from wealthy Cheshire families and became friends with Makki after the teen won a scholarship to the £12,000-a-year grammar school.

All three were aged 17 at the time.

Lawyers for the Makki family told the inquest that the only evidence he had brandished a knife came from Molnar.

The coroner had questioned how “feasible” it was for Makki, having been stabbed in the heart and bleeding heavily, to have then retracted the blade of the flick knife and put it in his pocket, before, according to Chowdhary, handing it to him to put down a grid.

On the fourth day of the second inquest, lawyers for Makki's family and Molnar and Chowdhary made final submissions to Coroner Geraint Williams.

Representing Chowdhary, Tom Coke-Smyth said the question of whether the youngster did or did not see anything meant "absolutely nothing" to the question of whether Molnar’s self-defence was justified.

Lisa Judge, representing Molnar, also said: “Any individual who came to this court to lie, would have maintained the lie.

“It is quite apparent that Joshua Molnar told many lies at the roadside. He accepted criminal culpability for those lies.

“The only inconsistencies are inconsistencies that arise out of trauma, fracturing memories or loss of memory.

“When lies are told, they are often told for many, many reasons other than culpability with regards to a specific act.”

Representing the Makki family, Peter Weatherby KC, added:  “We say Mr Molnar is lying about what happened because we say Yousef did not have a knife or did not brandish a knife.”

He said that Molnar had given differing accounts of what happened and asked the coroner to look at “precursor” evidence before the stabbing.

Mr Weatherby added: “We urge you not to accept that we are asking you to speculate.

"This is a search for the truth on a balance of probabilities.”

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 did not give evidence at Molnar’s murder trial and was found not guilty of perverting the course of justice.

He was given a four-month detention order after admitting to having a knife in public.

The second inquest is now being held with a new coroner after the High Court quashed the initial inquest and after Makki's family challenged the first coroner's finding that there was not enough evidence relating to the “central issue” of whether the killing was unlawful.

Mr Williams is scheduled to give his conclusions on Wednesday next week.