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.

Jurors spent just over three hours considering their verdict.

During the trial, which lasted six days, the jury heard how Franco was walking through Huddersfield town centre 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.