Joshua Molnar stabbed his 17-year-old friend, Yousef Makki, to death in March. They had both gone to reputed private schools in Manchester, became friends in the suburbs of the city before colliding with knives because of a drug issue.
According to Index, at the court, Joshua said that he stabbed Yousef by accident when he had taken out his pocket knife to defend himself. At the end of the 4-week series of trials, he was released in June, and according to the verdict, he has to attend a disciplinary programme for 16 months.
The crime was published in the press in March, but the name of the criminal has been revealed only recently because he turned 18 years old on Tuesday. Joshua thought himself to be a wealthy gangster of the middle class.
Joshua’s mother, Stephanie Molnar, is the manager of private nurseries and kindergartens, while his father, Mark Laszlo Molnar, is a consultant. The particularly wealthy parents could afford financing private school for their son – they had to change from time to time because of Joshua’s integration difficulties. Learning was not easy for him, and at the age of 13, his parents got divorced. There were times when they did not look after the boy at all – they did not even notice that he disappeared from home. He had joined different gangs, and at the age of 15, he started to smoke weed.
It was “socially accepted” because most of his friends smoked weed,
said Joshua at his trial.
Last time, he was fired from school – officially, he left the school based on a mutual agreement because they found marihuana in his school bag.
The other “passion” of the boy was knives. He loved posing with them in “drill” videos where he was often rapping while flailing a knife in his hand –
he imagined himself as a gangster of the middle class.
Drill is a very violent and wild subgenre of hip-hop, originating from Chicago. This style is gaining popularity also in the UK and encourages the youth to follow a violent lifestyle connected to crime and drug trade. You can watch one of the videos of this style below:
In many videos, they rap about killing others, and they excite certain gangs against each other. According to a hip-hop expert,
social media has the responsibility for transplanting these threats and messages in real life.
One of the last drill videos of Joshua was recorded during the trial of the murder of Yousef. To the word “shank” he imitates stabbing, The Telegraph reports.
Yousef Makki of British-Lebanese origin lived in South Manchester, and thanks to his excellent results in his studies, he was admitted to Manchester Grammar School. He was studying to be a heart surgeon when they got to know each other with Joshua – they became friends, smoked weed, and listened to drill music.
Photo: https://www.facebook.com/2275412606102350/photos
On 2nd March 2019, they planned to rob a drug dealer – he seemed to be an easy target, but they failed. Yousef escaped with a third guy, but Joshua was caught and beaten by the dealer’s men. Later that day, the three teenagers met again in the evening, and Joshua attacked Yousef furiously. Makki took out his knife, but Joshua quickly took out his own.
During their fight, Yousef was accidentally stabbed in the heart,
according to Joshua.
The Lebanese boy died of his wound, and Joshua denied that he stabbed with the knife in front of the police. Later, during his 4-week trial, he admitted that he stabbed with the knife as self-defence. They discharged him with murder, but he was sentenced to a disciplinary programme of “Detention Training Order” for 16 months because of misleading the authorities and illegal possession of weapons. According to the judge,
this behaviour is pathetic and infantile – something is wrong with this generation.
Joshua’s mother, Stephanie Molnar, has made an announcement about the tragedy in which she apologised and stated that all responsibility burdens her son for the murder – so he has to live with it for the rest of his life.
According to Yousef’s family, this announcement and the interview are only part of the PR campaign of Joshua’s parents. They have not expressed their condolences during the trials at all because they only care about their own reputation, according to Deborah Makki, Yousef’s mother. She was outraged by the verdict with her family, and they appealed the decision to seek justice for their murdered son.
Yousef’s sister says that her brother is not a victim of an accident but of murder, and she wants neither their help nor to forgive because their son killed her brother.
You can read about the biggest mafia murder scandal of Hungary here. You can also read about the biggest drug raid and mafia arrest action of the Budapest police here.