🔗 Share this article Person Jailed for At Least 23 Years for Murdering Syrian Teenager in Huddersfield A person has been sentenced to life with a minimum period of 23 years for the murder of a teenage Syrian refugee after the teenager walked by his girlfriend in downtown Huddersfield. Trial Hears Particulars of Fatal Altercation A Leeds courtroom heard how the accused, 20, knifed Ahmad Al Ibrahim, 16, soon after the boy walked by his companion. He was declared guilty of murder on the fourth day of the week. The teenager, who had fled conflict-ridden Homs after being injured in a blast, had been residing in the local community for only a short period when he encountered the defendant, who had been for a meeting at the job center that day and was intending to purchase beauty product with his girlfriend. Particulars of the Attack The court was informed that the accused – who had consumed cannabis, a stimulant drug, a prescription medication, an anesthetic and a painkiller – took “some petty exception” to the boy “harmlessly” going past his partner in the road. Surveillance tape showed the defendant making a remark to the teenager, and calling him over after a quick argument. As the youth walked over, the attacker deployed the weapon on a switchblade he was carrying in his trousers and drove it into the teenager's throat. Verdict and Judgment Franco refuted the murder charge, but was convicted by a panel of jurors who deliberated for just over three hours. He confessed to possessing a knife in a public area. While delivering the judgment on last Friday, the presiding judge said that upon observing the victim, Franco “marked him as a victim and drew him to within your reach to strike before killing him”. He said the defendant's assertion to have noticed a knife in the victim's belt was “untrue”. Crowson said of the teenager that “it is evidence to the healthcare workers working to keep him alive and his determination to live he even made it to the hospital alive, but in fact his trauma were lethal”. Relatives Impact and Message Presenting a declaration drafted by the victim's uncle his uncle, with input from his parents, Richard Wright KC told the trial that the victim's parent had had a heart episode upon learning of the incident of his child's passing, causing him to require surgery. “I am unable to describe the consequence of their terrible act and the impact it had over all involved,” the statement read. “The boy's mom still weeps over his belongings as they remind her of him.” The uncle, who said his nephew was as close as a child and he felt remorseful he could not keep him safe, went on to state that the victim had thought he had found “a safe haven and the fulfilment of dreams” in England, but instead was “tragically removed by the unnecessary and sudden attack”. “In my role as his uncle, I will always carry the guilt that he had come to the UK, and I could not protect him,” he said in a statement after the sentencing. “Dear Ahmad we care for you, we yearn for you and we will do for ever.” History of the Victim The trial learned the teenager had made his way for a quarter of a year to get to England from his home country, staying at a asylum seeker facility for teenagers in a city in Wales and studying in the Swansea area before moving to West Yorkshire. The boy had dreamed of becoming a physician, motivated partly by a wish to care for his mom, who suffered from a chronic medical issue.