A man has been found guilty of murdering a teenage Syrian refugee just weeks after the victim moved from Wales. The killer admitted to a jury he stabbed the victim “in the neck” after he had ‘innocuously’ walked past his girlfriend.
Ahmad Al Ibrahim, 16, had been living in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, for just a couple of weeks after moving from south Wales when he was fatally stabbed in the neck in broad daylight by Alfie Franco, 20, of The Park, Kirkburton, who had denied Ahmad’s murder and had faced a trial at Leeds Crown Court heard.
Jurors retired on Thursday to consider their verdict but returned a guilty verdict at 3.31pm, having deliberated for just over three hours. Don’t miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here
Ahmad Mamdouh Al Ibrahim -Credit:West Yorkshire Police
The trial heard Ahmad was walking in a crowded shopping area of Huddersfield town centre with a friend on April 3 when he walked past Franco’s girlfriend and “may have made, at most, minor contact with her”.
Prosecutor Richard Wright KC said Franco “appears to have taken some petty exception to that entirely innocuous passing” and called Ahmad back.
“Even as the boy started to walk towards him Alfie Franco was reaching into his jogging bottoms and opening the blade on a flick knife that he was illegally carrying,” Mr Wright said.
“He concealed the knife as he opened it, so that the boy did not appreciate the terrible danger he was in.”
Jurors heard that before Ahmad, who was unarmed, had even got close to the defendant, Franco lunged forwards and drove the blade of his concealed flick knife straight into the boy’s neck.
CCTV showed Ahmad clutching his throat and staggering a few yards up the street before collapsing.
Mr Wright said Franco crossed the road with his knife in his hand, “calmly” wiping Ahmad’s blood from the blade before putting it back into his trousers and running away.
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.
He was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at hospital.
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 a relative.
The teenager, who spoke English and was enrolled in college, had arranged to meet a friend at the bus station in Huddersfield on the day he died.
Following the verdict, Amad’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.
“Amad 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.”
Chief Superintendent Jim Griffiths, District Commander of Kirklees Police, said: “Significant amounts of work remain ongoing in Kirklees, as in wider West Yorkshire, to reduce knife crime. Violent offending involving knives in Kirklees has continued to fall, with a 12 per cent reduction in knife related violence against the person offences between August 2024 and August 2025.
“That said, we clearly realise the concern the shocking and motiveless murder of Ahmad has caused and welcome today’s conviction.
“We can advise it is rare in the extreme for such savage and unprovoked attacks to take place. We and colleagues in the Violence Reduction Partnership continue to conduct a massive programme to reduce knife crime in West Yorkshire through both education and enforcement action against those determined to carry and use knives.
“Those education initiatives have reached tens of thousands of children across West Yorkshire and we continue to ask for help from communities to tell us about those carrying bladed weapons.”
Franco will be sentenced at Leeds Crown Court on Friday.