🔗 Share this article

A individual has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years for the murder of a teenage Syrian asylum seeker after the victim walked by his girlfriend in the center of Huddersfield.

Trial Hears Particulars of Deadly Altercation

Leeds crown court was told how Alfie Franco, aged 20, stabbed Ahmad Al Ibrahim, 16, soon after the young man walked by the defendant's partner. He was declared guilty of homicide on the fourth day of the week.

The teenager, who had left war-torn his Syrian hometown after being wounded in a explosion, had been staying in the Huddersfield area for only a short period when he met his attacker, who had been for a meeting at the job center that day and was intending to purchase cosmetic adhesive with his female companion.

Details of the Assault

The trial was informed that the defendant – who had used marijuana, cocaine, diazepam, ketamine and a painkiller – took “a minor offense” to the teenager “innocuously” walking past his companion in the road.

CCTV footage revealed Franco uttering words to the teenager, and calling him over after a brief exchange. As the youth approached, Franco opened the blade on a folding knife he was holding in his trousers and plunged it into the boy’s neck.

Verdict and Sentencing

The accused refuted the murder charge, but was judged guilty by a trial jury who considered the evidence for about three hours. He confessed to carrying a blade in a public space.

While delivering the judgment on the fifth day of the week, the presiding judge said that upon observing the victim, Franco “marked him as a victim and enticed him to within your proximity to assault before ending his life”. He said his statement to have seen a weapon in the victim's belt was “a lie”.

He said of the teenager that “it is evidence to the medical personnel working to keep him alive and his determination to live he even arrived at the hospital breathing, but in fact his trauma were unsurvivable”.

Family Impact and Statement

Reciting a statement prepared by his relative Ghazwan Al Ibrahim, with help from his family, the legal representative told the judges that the teenager’s father had suffered a heart attack upon being informed of his boy's killing, leading to an operation.

“It is hard to express the consequence of their terrible act and the effect it had over everyone,” the message stated. “The victim's mother still sobs over his belongings as they smell of him.”

He, who said his nephew was as close as a child and he felt remorseful he could not protect him, went on to state that the teenager had thought he had found “a safe haven and the fulfilment of dreams” in the UK, but instead was “cruelly taken away by the senseless and unprovoked act”.

“In my role as his uncle, I will always carry the guilt that he had come to the UK, and I could not keep him safe,” he said in a declaration after the verdict. “Dear Ahmad we adore you, we miss you and we will continue always.”

History of the Teenager

The proceedings learned Ahmad had journeyed for a quarter of a year to arrive in Britain from his home country, visiting a asylum seeker facility for teenagers in a city in Wales and attending college in the Swansea area before moving to his final destination. The teenager had hoped to work as a medical professional, inspired partially by a desire to look after his mother, who had a chronic medical issue.