A JURY has retired to consider verdicts in the trial of two teenagers accused of involvement in the murder of a 17-year-old grammar school pupil.

Yousef Makki was stabbed to death in leafy Hale Barns, an upmarket village in Cheshire, in March.

The youngster, part of an Anglo-Lebanese family from Burnage, south Manchester, had won a scholarship to attend the prestigious £12,000-a-year Manchester Grammar School and dreamed of becoming a heart surgeon.

But he was stabbed in the heart with a flick knife by his friend after the two came to blows, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Boy A, 17, accused of murder, told the jury he acted in self-defence after Yousef punched him and pulled out a knife himself.

The four-week trial heard the defendants, from wealthy Cheshire families, along with Yousef, led "double lives" from their families and backgrounds, acting out "idiotic fantasies" of being middle class gangsters.

Calling each other "Bro" and "Fam", they would ride the streets on push bikes carrying knives, "chilling" while smoking cannabis, and posing on social media with "shanks", knives, accompanied by rap and Drill music.

Alastair Webster QC, defending boy A, said the "silliness" shown in the social media videos shared by the boys showed the stabbing was an "accident waiting to happen".

He said: "They appear to have led double lives, living out idiotic fantasies. Talking in stupid jive talk. Middle class gangsters."

The second youth, boy B, also 17, denies lying to police about what he had seen and who was responsible for the stabbing.

Neither defendants can be named because they are under 18.

Earlier Nicholas Johnson QC, prosecuting, told the jury boy A had a "fixation" with knives, and that the stabbing of Yousef was a "petulant, malicious response of a wannabe hardman who had lost face".

Boy A has admitted telling lies to police at the scene and has pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice. Boy B denies the same charge.

Both have admitted possessing a flick knife but both deny a charge of conspiracy to robbery.

The background to the stabbing was that earlier that day, boy B had called another youth who agreed to supply an eighth of cannabis for £45.

But the three, who had been smoking weed, thought the dealer was a "soft target" and planned to rob him.

He turned up with two others and while Yousef and boy B made off, boy A took a beating.

Hours later, Yousef was stabbed to death.

The jury of four men and eight women retired at 11.15am on Thursday and was sent home at 4.23pm. It will resume considering the verdicts on Friday morning.