A mother who had been fighting for answers following the stabbing of her teenage son in Greater Manchester has died “with a broken heart”, her family said.
Debbie Makki died on Sunday morning, 15 months after her son, Yousef Makki, was killed by a friend in Hale Barns, Greater Manchester, last March.
The friend, Joshua Molnar, was cleared last July of the murder and manslaughter of 17-year-old Yousef after a jury accepted he knifed him in the heart in self-defence. Another of Yousef’s friends present that day, Adam Chowdhary, was convicted of possessing a knife but acquitted of other charges.
Debbie never accepted the jury’s verdicts and had complained about the police investigation into her son’s death. She was bitterly disappointed last month when the Independent Office for Police Conduct told the family they had found no potential misconduct by any individual officer involved in the case.
She had been taken to hospital two days before her death after being isolated during lockdown. Her family did not reveal the cause of death but said the solitude gave her “too much time to think about the loss of Yousef – and the stark injustice and inhumane treatment of our family that followed.”
Yousef’s sister, Jade Akoum, said their mother had never found peace and vowed to continue to fight for answers.
“My mum’s mental and physical health had deteriorated dramatically over the past year and she hadn’t been the same since Yousef was murdered. Her heart was broken and the spark in her eyes had gone. The toll of losing Yousef was colossal, but the injustice and the constant uphill battle we had to fight meant she never found peace,” she said.
“There have been a lot of false promises to our family, beacons of hope from individuals that have amounted to nothing. I want to assure everyone that we will get to the bottom of this. Not only have these awful people taken Yousef, they have worn my mum down and taken her too. My mum was the strongest, bravest lady I have ever met and we will miss her dearly. We want to thank everyone who has supported us throughout and will continue to do so.”
Debbie’s family said she lay awake each night wondering why Molnar’s family never contacted her. In a statement, they said: “She wondered why the families of the boys involved in Yousef’s death have never contacted her and how they could be so cruel. It kept her awake most nights – she literally never slept. We were unable to be with her in her last moments, just as we were unable to be with Yousef – but they are together now which brings us some comfort. Our world has fallen apart all over again and we are all in complete shock.”
When Molnar’s identity was made public last year, his mother, Stephanie Molnar, issued a statement to say: “Joshua fully accepts responsibility for Yousef’s death in the act of self-defence and the impact of this acceptance is massive. He will have to live with the responsibility of his role in this for the rest of his life. We are also acutely aware that the hurt and loss that Yousef’s family is experiencing are infinitely greater than anything we are going through and nothing I can say can make up for or change that.”