A man who fatally stabbed a teenage Syrian refugee in the neck after he brushed past his girlfriend on a busy shopping street has been detained for life.
Alfie Franco, 20, must serve a minimum term of 23 years for the murder of 16-year-old Syrian refugee Ahmad Al Ibrahim in Huddersfield town centre.
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 before being stabbed to death by Franco.
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”.
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.”
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.”
On Thursday 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.
After the verdict, Ahmad’s uncle Ghazwan Al Ibrahim said: “Ahmad was just 16 years old when he was cruelly taken away by the senseless and unprovoked act committed by Franco.
“He had travelled from Syria to the UK, and this was meant to be his opportunity to create a better life for himself, leaving behind his parents and siblings in a war-torn country.
“Ahmad had only been in the UK since October 2024 and had only lived in Huddersfield for a matter of weeks before he was stabbed, in the middle of the day, for no apparent reason.
“I cannot begin to imagine how Ahmad was feeling in his final minutes. Alone in a strange country that should have been the place where he was safe.
“The image of having to identify my nephew and then having to break the news to my brother and sister-in-law and relay to them what had happened to their precious son will never leave me.
“His parents are heartbroken beyond words. As Ahmad’s uncle, I will always carry the guilt that Ahmad had come to the UK, and I could not keep him safe.
“Ahmad we love you, we miss you and we will do forever.”
