A 20-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 23 years for the murder of a 16-year-old Syrian refugee in Huddersfield town centre. Alfie Franco stabbed Ahmad Al Ibrahim after taking '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 after he innocuously walked past Franco's girlfriend. CCTV footage showed Franco calling Ahmad over before opening a flick knife and driving it into the boy's neck.
Franco denied murder but was found guilty by a jury after just over three hours of deliberation. He had pleaded guilty to possessing a knife in a public place. Judge Howard Crowson described Franco's claim of seeing a weapon on Ahmad as 'a lie', and noted that Ahmad's wounds were 'unsurvivable'.
Ahmad had fled war-torn Homs in Syria after being injured in a bombing and had been living in Huddersfield for only a few weeks. He aspired to be a doctor and had hoped to find 'the land of peace' in Britain, according to a statement from his uncle Ghazwan Al Ibrahim, who said the family was devastated by the 'senseless and unprovoked act'.
Ghazwan Al Ibrahim, who described Ahmad as like a son, said the teenager's father suffered a heart attack upon hearing the news and required surgery. 'His mother still cries over his clothes as they smell of him,' the statement read. 'As Ahmad's uncle, I will always carry the guilt that Ahmad had come to the UK, and I could not keep him safe.'
