🔗 Share this article

A man has been given a life sentence with a minimum term of 23 years for the murder of a young Syrian refugee after the boy passed his girlfriend in downtown Huddersfield.

Trial Hears Details of Deadly Altercation

A Leeds courtroom learned how Alfie Franco, aged 20, knifed the teenager, sixteen, not long after the boy brushed past his companion. He was convicted of murder on Thursday.

Ahmad, who had escaped conflict-ridden Homs after being wounded in a explosion, had been living in the West Yorkshire town for only a short period when he crossed paths with his attacker, who had been for a employment office visit that day and was going to buy cosmetic adhesive with his female companion.

Details of the Incident

Leeds crown court heard that the defendant – who had taken cannabis, a stimulant drug, diazepam, an anesthetic and codeine – took “a trivial issue” to the teenager “harmlessly” passing by his partner in the public space.

Surveillance tape revealed Franco uttering words to the victim, and calling him over after a short verbal altercation. As Ahmad came closer, Franco opened the blade on a flick knife he was carrying in his trousers and thrust it into the teenager's throat.

Trial Outcome and Sentencing

The defendant refuted the murder charge, but was found guilty by a jury who took a little more than three hours to decide. He admitted guilt to possessing a knife in a public place.

While handing Franco his sentence on Friday, judge Howard Crowson said that upon spotting the teenager, Franco “marked him as a victim and enticed him to within your proximity to attack before ending his life”. He said his statement to have noticed a knife in the boy's clothing was “a lie”.

Crowson said of the victim that “it stands as proof to the doctors and nurses trying to save his life and his determination to live he even arrived at the hospital breathing, but in fact his wounds were unsurvivable”.

Family Impact and Statement

Reading out a statement drafted by his relative his uncle, with help from his family, the legal representative told the trial that the victim's parent had experienced cardiac arrest upon hearing the news of his boy's killing, necessitating medical intervention.

“I am unable to describe the effect of their terrible act and the influence it had over all involved,” the testimony said. “The victim's mother still cries over his garments as they smell of him.”

The uncle, who said the boy was as close as a child and he felt ashamed he could not protect him, went on to declare that the teenager had thought he had found “the land of peace and the fulfilment of dreams” in England, but instead was “brutally snatched by the pointless and random violence”.

“As Ahmad’s uncle, I will always carry the guilt that the boy had traveled to England, and I could not protect him,” he said in a statement after the judgment. “Ahmad we love you, we miss you and we will do for ever.”

History of the Teenager

The trial learned Ahmad had journeyed for three months to reach the UK from the Middle East, visiting a shelter for young people in a city in Wales and attending college in the Swansea area before moving to West Yorkshire. The teenager had hoped to work as a doctor, inspired partially by a desire to care for his mom, who was affected by a long-term health problem.