Huddersfield man found guilty of murdering 16-year-old refugee

A man who stabbed a 16-year-old Syrian refugee on a busy street has been found guilty of his murder.

Alfie Franco, 20, pulled a flick knife from his pocket and slashed Ahmad Mamdouh Al Ibrahim in the neck in Huddersfield town centre on 3 April.

Franco had claimed he acted in self-defence after fearing Ahmad was going to attack him.

He denied murder but was found guilty by a jury after a trial at Leeds Crown Court and is due to be sentenced on Friday.

Jurors spent just over three hours considering their verdict.

During the trial, which lasted six days, the jury heard how Franco was walking with his then-girlfriend on the afternoon of 3 April.

The pair were seen on CCTV strolling through Ramsden Street in the town, eating ice cream, before Ahmad – who had only moved to the town two weeks earlier – and his friend walked past them.

Richard Wright KC, for the prosecution, said Ahmad “may have made a most minor contact” with Franco’s girlfriend, something to which Franco “appeared to take some petty exception”.

He said Franco called Ahmad back, and as he did he reached into his jogging bottoms and opened the blade on a flick knife that he was carrying in his pocket.

As Ahmad approached, Franco took the knife and lunged forwards, stabbing the teenager in the neck.

In his defence, Franco said he thought Ahmad was armed, and stabbed him because he thought it was “him or me”.

He said he only intended to cut his cheek and “didn’t believe it” when police told him he had died.

“I just wanted to get away,” he said.

“I didn’t know it would cause serious injury. I wanted to stop him.”

Franco returned home after the incident, but later handed himself in to police.

He was taken into custody at about 17:00 BST and police told him Ahmad had died a few hours later.

“I didn’t believe it at the start, I thought I was in a nightmare,” he said.

The court heard how Franco was born in Huddersfield but moved to South Africa with his family as a baby, before returning at the age of 13.

The jury was shown pictures and videos from his phone showing him smoking cannabis before the incident, and also of several knives which he had bought and had at home.

One showed him holding the weapons in his bedroom with the caption “artillery coming on nice”.

When asked by defence barrister Gill Batts KC why he had taken the photos, he said they were to send to his friends on a group chat because he wanted to “look big”.

Franco had previously admitted a charge of possessing a knife in a public place.

After Ahmad’s death, his family said he came to the UK after being injured in a bombing to live with his uncle and 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.”

Senior investigating officer Temp Det Supt Damian Roebuck said: “We welcome the jury’s verdict in convicting Franco for what was a horrific attack which was absolutely chilling in its simplicity and brutality.

“With no provocation whatsoever, he produced a knife and struck a blow targeted straight at Ahmad’s neck.

“We have always maintained he can only have intended to kill this young man who had done absolutely nothing to provoke him.

“Ahmad’s family have described his kind and gentle nature and excitement about building a future away from the conflict in Syria in which he himself had been injured.

“For him to lose his life in such a pointless, motiveless, attack in our communities at the hands of someone he never met is an absolute tragedy for him and all those who knew him.

“We can only hope they can take some small measure of comfort today for seeing his killer convicted for this appalling and inexplicable offence.”