A ‘cocky’ drug-fuelled thug who stabbed a teenage Syrian refugee in the neck after he brushed past his girlfriend on a busy shopping street was today detained for life with a minimum term of 23 years.
Ahmad Al Ibrahim, 16, who fled war-torn Homs after being injured in a bombing, had been living in Huddersfield for only a couple of weeks when he was stabbed to death by Alfie Franco, 20, in the West Yorkshire town centre.
Leeds Crown Court heard that on April 3 Ahmad was walking around the town with a friend, and Franco was going to buy eyelash glue with his girlfriend after a Jobcentre appointment.
When the two pairs crossed paths, Franco took ‘some petty exception’ to Ahmad ‘innocuously’ walking past his girlfriend, jurors were told.
CCTV footage shows Franco saying something to Ahmad, and calling him over after a short verbal altercation.
As Ahmad walked over, Franco opened the blade on a flick knife he was carrying in his trousers and drove it into the boy’s neck.
Prosecutors said Franco kept the knife hidden ‘in a sly way’ until the last second so that Ahmad, who was unarmed, ‘didn’t have a chance’.
Alfie Franco was found guilty of murder by a jury after just over three hours of deliberations
Ahmad Al Ibrahim was walking around Huddersfield with a friend at the time of the stabbing
Footage played during the trial showed Ahmad clutching his throat and staggering a few yards up the street before collapsing.
Jurors heard the knife travelled about 6cm deep into Ahmad’s neck, causing ‘immediate and massive blood loss’ and causing him to choke to death.
Franco fled the scene but later handed himself in at a police station, telling officers in an interview he had been acting in self-defence and had spent years living in South Africa as the only white boy in the Cape Flats, where ‘if a boy came for you with aggression, they are either coming to hurt you or kill you’.
Franco, who returned to Huddersfield from South Africa at the age of 13, told the trial he thought he had seen Ahmad reaching for a weapon in his waistband.
He said he had been aiming for the boy’s cheek and just wanted to ‘cut him and get away’.
Franco told jurors he had a knife with him that day because he had ‘been in altercations and heard things that happen’ in Huddersfield town centre and wanted it ‘to keep him safe’.
But in his closing speech to jurors, prosecutor Richard Wright KC said: ‘To plunge that knife into someone’s neck who has done no more than walk towards you after you’ve engaged them in some verbal argy-bargy in the street… That’s not reasonable self-defence.’
Mr Wright said Franco was ‘cool as a cucumber’ when he delivered the fatal blow, even continuing to eat his ice cream during the verbal altercation.
The prosecutor said: ‘This is a case of a young man with a cocky swagger, wandering around town with his girlfriend, on drugs, who doesn’t like the fact that Ahmad has spoken back to him.’
Sentencing him to life with a minimum term of 23 years today, Judge Howard Crowson said Franco’s claims of being in fear of Ahmad were ‘incredible’ as the CCTV footage showed the defendant calmly eating ice cream while preparing to stab him.
He 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.’
A video clip shows a verbal altercation after Ahmad made ‘minor contact’ with the woman
As Ahmad gets closer to Franco, the knifeman can be seen reaching into his pocket for a blade
The aftermath sees Ahmad clutche his neck and walks away, while Franco flees the scene
He said Franco’s claim to have seen a weapon on Ahmad’s waistband was ‘a lie’.
The judge said: ‘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.’
He 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, deliberately aiming for his neck.
Jurors heard Franco ‘had a wider interest in knives’ and had messaged a friend the day before threatening to stab someone over a stolen pushbike.
He had consumed cannabis before the killing, and tests also revealed he had recently used cocaine, diazepam, ketamine, and codeine.
The court heard Ahmad had arrived in the UK as an unaccompanied child refugee and was originally housed in another part of the country before being moved to Huddersfield to be near his uncle.
After his death, his family said he dreamed of becoming a doctor, ‘wanting to heal others after all he had endured’.
They said: ‘He chose to come to the UK because he believed in the values of human rights, safety, and dignity… he had just begun settling into his new life with his uncle, adjusting to a new language, a new home, and a future he was excited to build.
‘Ahmad was kind, gentle, and carried so much promise. Losing him has left an unimaginable emptiness in our hearts. We never thought that the place he saw as a safe haven would be where his life would end.’
Yesterday, Franco was found guilty of murder by a jury after just over three hours of deliberations.
He admitted a charge of possessing a knife in a public place at an earlier hearing.
In a victim impact statement read in court, Ahmad’s uncle, Ghazwan Al Ibrahim, said Ahmad was ‘an intelligent and outstanding student’ whose dream was to become a doctor.
He said his nephew had a ‘sociable and ambitious personality, loved helping people and was passionate about life’.
Mr Al Ibrahim said Ahmad spent three months travelling to the UK and initially lived in a Home Office hotel in Swansea with other people his own age before being moved to Huddersfield to be near his uncle.
He said Ahmad’s death had disappointed all his hopes of a better life in the UK and wasted all his family’s efforts to get him there.
Mr Al Ibrahim 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.’
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