🔗 Share this article

A individual has been given a life sentence with a minimum period of 23 years for the murder of a teenage Syrian asylum seeker after the victim walked by his partner in Huddersfield town centre.

Trial Learns Particulars of Fatal Confrontation

Leeds crown court was told how the accused, aged 20, stabbed the victim, sixteen, shortly after the young man brushed past Franco’s girlfriend. He was declared guilty of homicide on last Thursday.

Ahmad, who had escaped war-torn his Syrian hometown after being hurt in a explosion, had been living in the local community for only a couple of weeks when he met his attacker, who had been for a meeting at the job center that day and was planning to get cosmetic adhesive with his female companion.

Details of the Attack

The trial heard that the defendant – who had taken cannabis, cocaine, diazepam, an anesthetic and codeine – took “a minor offense” to the boy “innocuously” walking past his girlfriend in the street.

Security camera video showed Franco saying something to the victim, and summoning him after a short verbal altercation. As the youth came closer, the individual unfolded the knife on a folding knife he was carrying in his pants and drove it into the victim's neck.

Verdict and Judgment

The accused denied murder, but was found guilty by a panel of jurors who considered the evidence for about three hours. He pleaded guilty to carrying a blade in a public place.

While handing Franco his sentence on 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 his statement to have seen a weapon in Ahmad’s waistband was “a lie”.

Crowson said of Ahmad that “it is a testament to the doctors and nurses trying to save his life and his will to live he even made it to the hospital alive, but in truth his injuries were fatal”.

Family Reaction and Statement

Presenting a statement written by the victim's uncle his uncle, with help from his family, the legal representative told the trial that the teenager’s father had had a heart episode upon hearing the news of his boy's killing, necessitating medical intervention.

“I am unable to describe the consequence of their awful offense and the effect it had over all involved,” the statement read. “His mother still cries over his clothes as they smell of him.”

He, who said the boy was like a son and he felt remorseful he could not protect him, went on to explain that the teenager had thought he had found “the land of peace and the fulfilment of dreams” in England, but instead was “brutally snatched by the unnecessary and sudden attack”.

“In my role as his uncle, I will always carry the guilt that Ahmad had arrived in Britain, and I could not keep him safe,” he said in a statement after the verdict. “Our beloved boy we care for you, we long for you and we will do for ever.”

Background of the Victim

The proceedings was told the teenager had journeyed for 90 days to get to England from his home country, stopping in a shelter for teenagers in the Welsh city and studying in the local college before moving to West Yorkshire. The boy had hoped to work as a physician, inspired partially by a desire to support his parent, who had a long-term health problem.