A TEENAGER who lied to police after he stabbed a grammar school pupil to death will spend eight months in custody.

The boy, aged 17, stabbed Yousef Makki, also 17, in the heart with a flick knife in a tree-lined street in the upmarket village of Hale Barns, Cheshire, on March 2.

Yousef, who was from a single-parent Anglo-Lebanese family from Burnage, south Manchester, had won a scholarship to the prestigious £12,000-a-year Manchester Grammar School.

The defendant, Boy A, admitted perverting the course of justice by lying to police and possession of a flick knife. He was cleared by a jury earlier this month of murder and an alternative count of manslaughter after he said he acted in self-defence.

On Thursday at Manchester Crown Court, Mr Justice Bryan sentenced Boy A to a 12-month detention and training order for perverting the course of justice and a four-month detention and training order for possessing a bladed article, to run consecutively.

A second 17-year-old defendant, Boy B, was cleared of perverting the course of justice by allegedly lying to police about what he had seen but also admitted possession of a flick knife.

Both were also cleared of conspiracy to commit robbery in the lead-up to Yousef's death.

Boy B was sentenced to a four-month detention and training order.

Both will be released halfway through their sentences under supervision.

Neither of the defendants from wealthy Cheshire families can be named as they are under 18.

Sentencing, the judge told the pair: "The backdrop to your offending is depressingly all too familiar - a warped culture whereby the possession of knives is considered to be 'cool' and 'aesthetically pleasing' and knives are routinely carried on our streets.

"Mix that with youth as well as drugs and drug dealing, as in the present case, and it is a recipe for disaster and the tragic, but all too predictable, events that unfolded.

"From the evidence I have heard in the course of your trial, it is clear that both of you had an unhealthy fixation with knives which is all too common amongst the youth of today.

"It must stop. There is nothing cool about knives. Their carrying all too often leads to their use and to tragedy, and it is a fallacy that they can keep you safe - very much the reverse, as events all too often demonstrate.

"Knife crime is a cancer on society, and it affects all spectrums of society - the message that must be brought home is that knives kill, and knives ruin lives.

"The best legacy of Yousef's tragic death would be if this message could be got across - and knives (are) regarded as 'uncool' by the young in society going forward."

Both defendants, wearing suits, showed no reaction as they left the dock, with tears from relatives of Boy A sitting in the public gallery.

The family of Yousef chose not to attend the sentencing hearing.

On Wednesday, his parents, Ghaleb and Debbie, joined anti-knife crime campaigners outside the Manchester Crown Court building in a peaceful demonstration.

The jury heard the stabbing was an "accident waiting to happen" as all three youths indulged in "idiotic fantasies" playing middle class gangsters.

Despite the privileged backgrounds of both defendants they led "double lives", the court heard.

Calling each other "Bro" and "Fam" and the police "Feds", the defendants and Yousef smoked cannabis, road around on bikes and listened to rap or drill music.

They would post videos on social media, making threats and posing with "shanks", or knives, the court heard.

Boy B purchased the flick knives online in a false name.

Th court heard the background to the fatal stabbing on Gorse Bank Road, Hale Barns, was that hours earlier, Boy B arranged a £45 cannabis deal and the teenagers planned to rob the drug dealer, a "soft target".

But the robbery went wrong and Yousef and Boy B fled, leaving Boy A to take a beating.

Boy A then later pushed Yousef who called him a "pussy" and punched him in the face, the court heard.

He told the jury Yousef pulled out a knife and he responded by also taking out a knife in self defence and his victim was accidentally stabbed.

Addressing Boy A, Mr Justice Bryan said the teenager maintained his false account of events throughout the time at the scene and did not correct himself for some 24 hours.

His convincing lies, the judge said, meant he was treated at the scene as a witness not a suspect and undoubtedly wasted valuable police resources.

He said he took into account Boy A's previous good character, the mitigation offered on his behalf and the character reference he had received.

Mr Justice Bryan added: "In particular I bear in mind that you faced charges of the utmost gravity from March to July 2019 and that your conduct has been the subject of intense media comment both before and after the verdicts, not all of which has been focused upon the evidence that was heard by the jury.

"I have also given very careful consideration to the contents of the pre-sentence report which has been prepared with obvious care and identifies that you know that you are facing a custodial sentence, and that a custodial sentence would go a long way in reinforcing to you that offences of this nature are extremely serious."

He told both defendants that they would be under supervision until their sentences ended and if they break the terms of supervision or commit a further offence during that period a court could order their detention in secure accommodation.