A man has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years for the murder of a 16-year-old Syrian refugee in Huddersfield. Alfie Franco, 20, stabbed Ahmad Al Ibrahim after taking what the court described as a 'petty exception' to the teenager brushing past his girlfriend.
Leeds Crown Court heard that Franco, who had consumed a cocktail of drugs including cannabis, cocaine, diazepam, ketamine and codeine, confronted Ahmad in the town centre in April. CCTV footage showed Franco calling the teenager over before opening a flick knife and stabbing him in the neck.
Ahmad had fled war-torn Homs in Syria after being injured in a bombing and had been living in the UK for only a few weeks. He had aspired to become a doctor and had been staying in Huddersfield for just two weeks when he was killed.
Franco denied murder but was found guilty by a jury after just over three hours of deliberation. He also pleaded guilty to possessing a knife in a public place. The judge, Howard Crowson, described Franco's claim that he saw a weapon on Ahmad as 'a lie'.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Ahmad's uncle Ghazwan Al Ibrahim said the teenager's father suffered a heart attack upon hearing the news. 'His mother still cries over his clothes as they smell of him,' the statement said. 'Ahmad had thought he had found the land of peace and the fulfilment of dreams in Britain, but instead was cruelly taken away.'
