A 20-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 23 years for the murder of a Syrian refugee teenager in Huddersfield. Alfie Franco stabbed 16-year-old Ahmad Al Ibrahim after taking exception to the boy brushing past his girlfriend in the town centre in April.
Leeds Crown Court heard that Franco, who had consumed a cocktail of drugs including cannabis, cocaine, and ketamine, opened a flick knife and stabbed Ahmad in the neck. The court was told that Franco 'identified him as a target and lured him to within your range to strike before killing him,' according to Judge Howard Crowson.
Ahmad had fled war-torn Syria after being injured in a bombing and had been in the UK for only a few weeks. He had aspired to become a doctor and had thought he had found 'the land of peace and the fulfilment of dreams' in Britain, his uncle said in a statement read to the court.
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 dismissed Franco's claim that he had seen a weapon in Ahmad's waistband as 'a lie'.
In a statement, Ahmad's uncle Ghazwan Al Ibrahim expressed the family's devastation, saying Ahmad's mother still cries over his clothes. He added that he will 'always carry the guilt that Ahmad had come to the UK, and I could not keep him safe'.
