Alfie Franco, 20, has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 23 years for murdering teenage Syrian refugee Ahmad Al Ibrahim. Franco stabbed the 16-year-old in the neck during a "pointless, motiveless" attack in broad daylight on a crowded Huddersfield shopping street on April 3.
Ahmad had been living in the West Yorkshire town for only a couple of weeks after fleeing war-torn Homs, where he had been injured in a bombing. Franco, who had attended a Jobcentre appointment that day and was going to buy eyelash glue with his girlfriend, took "some petty exception" to Ahmad "innocuously" walking past his girlfriend.
The court heard Franco had consumed cannabis, cocaine, diazepam, ketamine and codeine that day. CCTV footage showed Franco calling Ahmad over after a brief verbal altercation, then opening a flick knife and driving the blade into the teenager's neck, with prosecutors saying he kept the "savage" knife hidden until the last second so Ahmad "didn't have a chance".
Judge dismisses defence claims
Sentencing Franco on Friday, Judge Howard Crowson dismissed the defendant's claims that he feared Ahmad was reaching for a weapon. The judge said Franco's assertions were "incredible" as CCTV footage showed him "calmly eating ice cream while preparing to stab" Ahmad.
Judge Crowson told Franco: "During this trial you tried to portray Ahmad as aggressive and threatening. The CCTV reveals you were under no threat whatsoever. Ahmad was unarmed as he walked peacefully about Huddersfield town centre that day." The judge said Franco's claim to have seen a weapon on Ahmad's waistband was "a lie".
The judge said he was satisfied that Franco intended to kill Ahmad and that he had "lured" the boy to within striking distance before lunging at him with the knife. Judge Crowson noted: "Before Ahmad made any movement towards you, you prepared your knife for use. You calmly and surreptitiously removed the knife from your waistband, opened it and concealed it in your pocket."
Pattern of knife interest revealed
Franco had told the trial he thought Ahmad was reaching for a weapon and claimed he was aiming for the boy's cheek, saying he just wanted to "cut him and get away". However, footage played during the trial showed Ahmad clutching his throat and staggering before collapsing.
The court heard Franco "had a wider interest in knives" and had messaged a friend the day before threatening to stab someone over a stolen pushbike. Franco, who spent most of his childhood in South Africa before returning to Huddersfield at age 13, denied murder but was found guilty after a jury deliberated for just over three hours.
Victim's shattered dreams
In a victim impact statement, Ahmad's uncle Ghazwan Al Ibrahim described his nephew as "an intelligent and outstanding student" whose dream was to become a doctor. He said Ahmad had a "sociable and ambitious personality, loved helping people and was passionate about life".
Ahmad had spent three months travelling to the UK and initially lived in a Home Office hotel in Swansea before being moved to Huddersfield to be near his uncle. Mr Al Ibrahim said his nephew's death had "disappointed all his hopes of a better life in the UK" and wasted all the family's efforts to get him there.
He said: "It was the end of everything we had hoped for Ahmad after we had been happy about his arrival in the UK - the land of peace and the fulfilment of dreams."
Sources used: "PA Media" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
