Syrian refugee, 16, killed in Huddersfield after 'innocuously' walking past man's girlfriend
Alfie Franco, 20, has gone on trial today accused of the murder of Ahmad Al Ibrahim
A teenage Syrian refugee who fled war-torn Homs after being injured in a bombing was stabbed to death in a West Yorkshire town centre by a man whose girlfriend he "innocuously" walked past, prosecutors have told a jury.
Ahmad Al Ibrahim, 16, had been living in Huddersfield for just a couple of weeks when he was fatally stabbed in the neck in broad daylight by Alfie Franco, 20, Leeds Crown Court heard.
Jurors were told 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.
Franco was in the town centre that afternoon with his then girlfriend.
Mr Wright said the two pairs were "oblivious to one another and (had) no previous involvement with one another".
Showing jurors CCTV footage of their movements around Huddersfield that day, Mr Wright said: "Unknown to one another, without any connection or pre-existing grievance, two young men wandering around the town centre unaware that within moments one of them would kill the other by stabbing him in the neck."
The court heard Franco went home after fleeing the scene but later handed himself in to police, telling officers during an interview that Ahmad had bumped into his girlfriend and then asked him: "Do you have a problem?".
Franco said he replied: "Nah mate, do you have a problem?" and was turning to leave but Ahmad walked towards him.
He told police he saw something that he thought was a weapon on Ahmad's waist and so he took out an antique knife that belonged to his uncle who had recently died, and which he carried only for sentimental reasons.
Mr Wright said: "He described Ahmad as 'launching' at him and claimed that he had 'launched' back using his non-dominant left hand and not meaning to stab him where he stabbed him."
Franco told police he had spent years living in South Africa as the only white boy in the Cape Flats, and said where he was from "if a boy came for you with aggression, they are either coming to hurt you or kill you".
Mr Wright said the prosecution case was that "self-defence does not arise at all", telling jurors: "Ahmad was not the aggressor, and he was not armed with a weapon."
The prosecutor said the knife was not a keepsake that Franco had inherited from his dead uncle, but that he had bought it weeks earlier.
He told jurors Franco "had a wider interest in knives", that he owned two more and had searched online for two others.
The court heard Franco's phone contained a video of him "playing with the knife that he had used to kill Ahmad, practicing opening the blade with his left hand".
Jurors heard Franco had consumed cannabis before the killing, and tests also revealed he had recently used cocaine, diazepam, ketamine, and codeine.
After Ahmad's death, his family said he came to the UK, after being injured in a bombing, to live with his uncle and dreamed of becoming a doctor, "wanting to heal others after all he had endured".
They said: "He chose to come to the UK because he believed in the values of human rights, safety, and dignity... He had just begun settling into his new life with his uncle, adjusting to a new language, a new home, and a future he was excited to build.
"Ahmad was kind, gentle, and carried so much promise. Losing him has left an unimaginable emptiness in our hearts.
"We never thought that the place he saw as a safe haven would be where his life would end."
Franco denies murder but has admitted a charge of possessing a knife in a public place.
The trial continues.