The family of a public schoolboy stabbed to death by a friend have called for a Big Brother contestant to be removed from the show for allegedly celebrating his killer ‘getting off’ after a trial.

Yousef Makki, 17, who won a scholarship at Manchester Grammar School and wanted to be a heart surgeon, suffered fatal injuries in a confrontation in Hale Barns, Greater Manchester, on March 2, 2019.

His friend Joshua Molnar, a 17-year-old pupil from a wealthy family, was later cleared of both murder and manslaughter over the killing, claiming self-defence.

Now Yousef’s family have hit out at Big Brother contestant Lynx Noumey, 24, following social media posts said to be in support of Mr Molnar. Lynx and Joshua are understood to be friends. 

Calling for him to be kicked out of the ITV series, Yousef’s sister Jade Akoum said: ‘I don’t think someone like that should have a chance at a TV career.’

Yousef’s family have long insisted they were denied justice and successfully fought for a second inquest which concluded that he had been unlawfully killed.

Contestant Lynx Noumey, 24, should be kicked out of the Big Brother house for allegedly celebrating Yousef Makki’s killer ‘getting off’ after a trial, according to Yousef’s grieving family

Yousef Makki, 17, who wanted to be a heart surgeon, suffered fatal injuries in Hale Barns, Greater Manchester, on March 2, 2019

Joshua Molnar pictured on social media this year with Big Brother contestant Lynx Noumey

His mother Debbie died of sepsis after becoming unwell only 14 months after her son’s death.

Mr Molnar – jailed for 16 months after admitting lying to police and possessing a knife in public – was later asked by a coroner if he had changed his account from the one given at his trial to make it sound as though Yousef was ‘being more aggressive’.

Criticising Mr Molnar’s ‘self-serving’ claims, Geraint Williams said his ‘use of [his] knife was unnecessary, disproportionate and unreasonable in all of the circumstances’.

He ruled that Mr Molnar’s actions were not committed in ‘self-defence’ as he had claimed, and that they did amount to manslaughter.

However, Yousef’s family were again left ‘disappointed’ in 2023 after the Crown Prosecution Service declined to seek a retrial.

Mr Molnar and Mr Noumey – who was not involved in Yousef’s death – are reportedly friends, with one social media post showing them enjoying pints of Guinness together.

In a statement to the Sun, Yousef’s family said they were ‘deeply distressed that someone who is a close friend of the person responsible for the death of our beloved brother’ was ‘currently being given a platform on Big Brother’.

‘What makes this situation particularly painful is that this contestant is not simply someone with a distant connection to the case,’ they added.

Yousef’s campaigning sister Jade Akoum (pictured with her husband Mazen) are calling on Mr Noumey to be thrown off the ITV show

‘He is a close friend of the person who killed our brother.

‘We had been sent social media posts in 2019 in which he appeared to boast about Josh having “got away with murder”.

‘We find this deeply offensive and profoundly distressing as a family who have had to live with the loss of Yousef every single day.

‘We are therefore asking ITV and the Big Brother production team to urgently investigate this material and the contestant’s conduct.

‘We believe that appearing on a programme watched by millions provides an enormous public platform.

‘We are calling on ITV and Big Brother to remove him from the programme.’

On social media Ms Akoum added: ‘These are not the guys you want your sons to be looking up to.

‘So pretty please don’t vote to save this guy, get him out ASAP.

‘When he’s gone let me know so I can get back to watching the show!’

ITV was approached for comment.