🔗 Share this article

A individual has been sentenced to life with a minimum period of 23 years for the homicide of a teenage Syrian refugee after the victim walked by his girlfriend in the center of Huddersfield.

Trial Learns Details of Fatal Confrontation

A Leeds courtroom heard how the accused, twenty, attacked with a knife Ahmad Al Ibrahim, aged 16, shortly after the young man brushed past the defendant's partner. He was convicted of the killing on the fourth day of the week.

The victim, who had fled conflict-ridden the city of Homs after being injured in a explosion, had been living in the Huddersfield area for only a couple of weeks when he crossed paths with the defendant, who had been for a meeting at the job center that day and was planning to get beauty product with his female companion.

Particulars of the Incident

Leeds crown court learned that Franco – who had taken weed, a stimulant drug, diazepam, ketamine and codeine – took “a trivial issue” to the boy “harmlessly” passing by his girlfriend in the road.

Security camera video showed Franco making a remark to the victim, and summoning him after a brief exchange. As the boy approached, the individual opened the blade on a folding knife he was carrying in his pants and thrust it into the boy’s neck.

Verdict and Sentencing

Franco pleaded not guilty to murder, but was convicted by a trial jury who took a little more than three hours to decide. He pleaded guilty to carrying a blade in a public area.

While handing Franco his sentence on last Friday, the court judge said that upon seeing Ahmad, the defendant “singled him out and lured him to within your reach to strike before taking his life”. He said Franco’s claim to have noticed a knife in the boy's clothing was “untrue”.

Crowson said of the teenager that “it is a testament to the medical personnel working to keep him alive and his desire to survive he even reached the hospital with signs of life, but in truth his injuries were lethal”.

Relatives Impact and Message

Presenting a message prepared by his relative his uncle, with contributions from his mother and father, the legal representative told the court that the boy's dad had had a heart episode upon hearing the news of his boy's killing, causing him to require surgery.

“It is hard to express the impact of their terrible act and the impact it had over everyone,” the testimony said. “The boy's mom still weeps over his clothes as they smell of him.”

The uncle, who said the boy was as close as a child and he felt remorseful he could not protect him, went on to declare that Ahmad had thought he had found “a safe haven and the achievement of aspirations” in England, but instead was “tragically removed by the pointless and random violence”.

“Being his relative, I will always bear the shame that the boy had arrived in Britain, and I could not protect him,” he said in a declaration after the judgment. “Dear Ahmad we care for you, we long for you and we will feel this way eternally.”

Background of the Teenager

The court was told the teenager had made his way for 90 days to get to England from his home country, stopping in a refugee centre for young people in a city in Wales and studying in the Swansea area before moving to his final destination. The boy had dreamed of becoming a medical professional, inspired partially by a desire to look after his mother, who was affected by a long-term health problem.