THE stabbing to death of a grammar school boy by his teenage friend was an "accident waiting to happen" after they indulged in "idiotic fantasies" playing middle class gangsters, a jury has heard.

Yousef Makki, 17, was stabbed in the heart with a flick knife by his friend on a tree-lined street in leafy Hale Barns, an upmarket village in Cheshire.

Yousef, from an Anglo-Lebanese family from Burnage, south Manchester, had won a scholarship to prestigious £12,000-a-year Manchester Grammar School.

But he and his friends, Boy A and another teenager, Boy B, both aged 17 and on trial at Manchester Crown Court, had led "double lives", the jury heard.

Despite the privileged backgrounds of the defendants, both from wealthy Cheshire families, they spoke and acted like "middle class gangsters", the court heard.

Neither defendants can be named because they are aged under 18.

In his closing speech to the jury, 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 added: "Juvenile gangsters playing around with knives. What's going on with a whole generation of children with the advantage of good families and good education?

"They appear to have led double lives, living out idiotic fantasies.

"Talking in stupid jive talk.

"Idiotic, juvenile, pathetic, but not sinister - stupid."

Calling each other "Bro" and "Fam", the defendants smoked cannabis, listened to rap or drill music and Boy A posted videos on social media posing with his "shanks" or knives.

He denies murder on March 2 and claims he acted in self-defence.

Boy B, accused of lying to police after the stabbing, denies perverting the course of justice.

Mr Webster said when the Rolling Stones sang about fighting in the streets, "I didn't feel remotely tempted to go out with a Molotov cocktail... Che Guevara T-shirt."

"Ridiculous posing videos, talking rap gangsters are nothing more than that, ridiculous posing.

"In my day, you went around with long hair calling everyone 'Man.'

"Now it seems everyone wants to play a New York City gangster. Middle class gangsters.

"If they were dropped off in one of the rougher areas of Manchester... It's fine being a gangster in Cheshire."

Earlier Nicholas Johnson, QC, prosecuting, told the jury Boy A had a "fixation" with knives and stabbed Yousef when "red mist" descended in a fit of temper.

"It was a petulant, malicious response of a wannabe hardman who had lost face and could not get his own way," he said.

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 commit robbery.

Prosecutors allege the background to the fatal stabbing was that hours earlier, Boy B arranged a £45 cannabis deal and the teenagers planned to rob the drug dealer.

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

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

He told the jury Yousef pulled out a knife and he responded by also taking out a knife and Yousef was accidentally stabbed.

Boy A then got rid of the knives before, in a panic, realising how serious the injury was, trying to staunch the blood pouring from his wounded friend's chest as he lay dying in the street.

The trial continues.