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A person has been given a life sentence with a lowest sentence of 23 years for the killing of a young Syrian asylum seeker after the victim walked by his girlfriend in Huddersfield town centre.

Court Hears Details of Deadly Altercation

A Leeds courtroom was told how Alfie Franco, twenty, stabbed the teenager, sixteen, soon after the boy passed his companion. He was found guilty of the killing on Thursday.

The teenager, who had left battle-scarred his Syrian hometown after being wounded in a bombing, had been staying in the West Yorkshire town for only a couple of weeks when he encountered Franco, who had been for a employment office visit that day and was intending to purchase eyelash glue with his female companion.

Details of the Attack

The trial learned that the accused – who had consumed cannabis, a stimulant drug, a prescription medication, an anesthetic and codeine – took “some petty exception” to Ahmad “innocuously” passing by his girlfriend in the street.

Security camera video revealed the man making a remark to the victim, and summoning him after a brief exchange. As the youth came closer, the individual opened the blade on a switchblade he was holding in his pants and drove it into the victim's neck.

Verdict and Sentencing

Franco refuted the murder charge, but was found guilty by a trial jury who deliberated for just over three hours. He pleaded guilty to having a knife in a public area.

While delivering the judgment on last Friday, judge Howard Crowson said that upon observing the victim, the man “singled him out and lured him to within your range to assault before ending his life”. He said the defendant's assertion to have spotted a blade in Ahmad’s waistband was “false”.

He said of Ahmad that “it is evidence to the healthcare workers trying to save his life and his determination to live he even reached the hospital with signs of life, but in fact his trauma were fatal”.

Family Reaction and Message

Reciting a statement drafted by his relative the family member, with help from his family, the legal representative told the trial that the teenager’s father had experienced cardiac arrest upon being informed of his son’s death, necessitating medical intervention.

“It is hard to express the consequence of their awful offense and the impact it had over the whole family,” the statement said. “The boy's mom still sobs over his clothes as they carry his scent.”

He, who said the boy was dear to him and he felt remorseful he could not shield him, went on to state that the victim had thought he had found “a peaceful country and the realization of hopes” in Britain, but instead was “cruelly taken away by the unnecessary and sudden attack”.

“Being his relative, I will always bear the shame that Ahmad had arrived in Britain, and I could not ensure his safety,” he said in a message after the sentencing. “Dear Ahmad we care for you, we miss you and we will continue always.”

History of the Teenager

The trial heard Ahmad had travelled for a quarter of a year to get to England from his home country, stopping in a shelter for youths in Swansea and attending college in the Welsh city before relocating to his final destination. The young man had aspired to be a medical professional, driven in part by a desire to care for his mom, who suffered from a chronic medical issue.