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A individual has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 23 years for the killing of a teenage Syrian asylum seeker after the victim brushed past his companion in Huddersfield town centre.

Court Hears Details of Fatal Confrontation

The court in Leeds was told how the accused, twenty, stabbed the teenager, sixteen, soon after the young man passed Franco’s girlfriend. He was convicted of the killing on the fourth day of the week.

The victim, who had escaped war-torn Homs after being injured in a blast, had been living in the local community for only a few weeks when he encountered his attacker, who had been for a employment office visit that day and was intending to purchase eyelash glue with his girlfriend.

Particulars of the Incident

The trial was informed that Franco – who had consumed marijuana, a stimulant drug, diazepam, ketamine and codeine – took “some petty exception” to Ahmad “harmlessly” walking past his partner in the public space.

Surveillance tape showed Franco making a remark to the victim, and calling him over after a quick argument. As the boy came closer, Franco deployed the weapon on a folding knife he was carrying in his trousers and thrust it into the teenager's throat.

Trial Outcome and Sentencing

Franco denied murder, but was judged guilty by a trial jury who took a little more than three hours to decide. He pleaded guilty to possessing a knife in a public space.

While sentencing the defendant on last Friday, the court judge said that upon seeing Ahmad, the man “marked him as a victim and drew him to within your range to assault before killing him”. He said the defendant's assertion to have seen a weapon in the victim's belt was “a lie”.

The judge said of the victim that “it stands as proof to the medical personnel attempting to rescue him and his will to live he even made it to the hospital alive, but in truth his injuries were fatal”.

Family Reaction and Statement

Reading out a message drafted by his relative the family member, with help from his family, Richard Wright KC told the trial that the victim's parent had had a heart episode upon learning of the incident of his boy's killing, necessitating medical intervention.

“Words cannot capture the effect of their awful offense and the impact it had over the whole family,” the statement read. “The victim's mother still cries over his garments as they remind her of him.”

Ghazwan, who said his nephew was dear to him and he felt guilty he could not protect him, went on to explain that Ahmad had thought he had found “the land of peace and the fulfilment of dreams” in the UK, but instead was “cruelly taken away by the senseless and unprovoked act”.

“Being his relative, I will always feel responsible that the boy had traveled to England, and I could not protect him,” he said in a message after the judgment. “Ahmad we love you, we yearn for you and we will do for ever.”

Background of the Victim

The trial learned the victim had made his way for 90 days to reach the UK from his home country, staying at a refugee centre for teenagers in Swansea and studying in the local college before moving to Huddersfield. The young man had hoped to work as a medical professional, inspired partially by a hope to support his parent, who had a persistent condition.