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A person has been jailed for life with a lowest sentence of 23 years for the murder of a teenage Syrian refugee after the teenager walked by his girlfriend in Huddersfield town centre.

Court Hears Particulars of Deadly Confrontation

A Leeds courtroom heard how the accused, twenty, stabbed the victim, sixteen, not long after the teenager passed Franco’s girlfriend. He was found guilty of homicide on Thursday.

The victim, who had left war-torn the city of Homs after being hurt in a bombing, had been residing in the West Yorkshire town for only a few weeks when he met Franco, who had been for a employment office visit that day and was going to buy eyelash glue with his girlfriend.

Details of the Incident

The court was informed that Franco – who had used cannabis, a stimulant drug, a prescription medication, an anesthetic and a painkiller – took “a trivial issue” to the boy “without malice” walking past his girlfriend in the public space.

Surveillance tape revealed the man saying something to Ahmad, and summoning him after a brief exchange. As Ahmad walked over, Franco deployed the weapon on a switchblade he was carrying in his clothing and thrust it into the teenager's throat.

Verdict and Judgment

The accused pleaded not guilty to murder, but was judged guilty by a jury who considered the evidence for about three hours. He confessed to having a knife in a public space.

While handing Franco his sentence on the fifth day of the week, judge Howard Crowson said that upon spotting the teenager, the man “singled him out and enticed him to within your reach to attack before killing him”. He said Franco’s claim to have seen a weapon in the boy's clothing was “a lie”.

He said of the victim that “it stands as proof to the healthcare workers trying to save his life and his will to live he even made it to the hospital alive, but in truth his injuries were unsurvivable”.

Relatives Reaction and Statement

Presenting a message drafted by the victim's uncle Ghazwan Al Ibrahim, with input from his parents, the legal representative told the trial that the victim's parent had had a heart episode upon learning of the incident of his son’s death, necessitating medical intervention.

“I am unable to describe the consequence of their heinous crime and the influence it had over everyone,” the statement said. “The victim's mother still weeps over his clothes as they smell of him.”

Ghazwan, who said the boy was as close as a child and he felt ashamed he could not protect him, went on to state that Ahmad had thought he had found “a safe haven and the fulfilment of dreams” in Britain, but instead was “cruelly taken away by the unnecessary and sudden attack”.

“In my role as his uncle, I will always carry the guilt that Ahmad had traveled to England, and I could not protect him,” he said in a message after the judgment. “Ahmad we care for you, we miss you and we will continue always.”

History of the Victim

The court heard Ahmad had travelled for three months to reach the UK from Syria, visiting a asylum seeker facility for young people in the Welsh city and going to school in the Swansea area before arriving in West Yorkshire. The teenager had aspired to be a medical professional, driven in part by a hope to care for his mom, who had a long-term health problem.