Overview

• West Yorkshire Police released CCTV showing Franco call Ahmad Al Ibrahim over before producing a concealed flick knife and stabbing him in the neck.
• Prosecutors presented evidence of Franco’s interest in knives, threatening messages sent the day before, and recent use of drugs including cannabis, cocaine, ketamine, diazepam and codeine.
• Ahmad, 16, had fled Homs, Syria, and had been in Huddersfield only a few weeks as he prepared for college and a new life near family.
• Jurors deliberated for three hours and 11 minutes before returning the guilty verdict, and Franco had earlier admitted possessing a knife in public.
• Franco fled the scene but later surrendered to police claiming self-defence, a claim the jury rejected as police leaders reiterated ongoing knife-crime prevention efforts in Kirklees.