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In a busy center in the city, a person who stabbed a teenage refugee’s neck with a knife told the court that he was targeting the boy’s cheek.
16 -year -old Ahmed Al Ibrahim died of a knife by 20 -year -old Alfi Franco, whose girlfriend went to a crowded shopping street in Hudersfield on 3 April.
Prosecutors say that it appears that Franco has taken some “small discounts” when Ahmed has some “minor contact” with his girlfriend after his girlfriend walks “unhappy”.
Jury members of the Leeds Crown Court have heard that Franco called Ahmed to him and as soon as he came near, the defendant opened a knife blade and killed him in the boy’s neck.
On Tuesday, Franco told in a trial that he stabbed Ahmed because he was “scared to be with me” and he just wanted to cut it so that I would survive “.
He told the court that Ahmed was “quite aggressive” during the quarrel and “kept attacking his waist”.
Franco said that she was at the West Yorkshire Town Center for the JobSentor Appointment that day and her girlfriend wanted to buy some eyelash gum.
Asked why he took the knife with him, he said: “Because I have been in controversies and heard about the events in the city. I just wanted to keep it with me … so that I could be safe.”
After seeing the CCTV clip of his and his girlfriend walking together and eating ice cream a few minutes before the knife, Franco said: “I was feeling quite happy … the meeting was good in the jobcover.”
He said that while the couple was walking, “a boy” (Ahmed) turned and he looked at him and then said: “Do you have any problem?”
Franco said he did not know what happened but the boy “became aggressive” and he assumed that he or his girlfriend “harassed him”.
He told the jury members: “I felt as if something was going to happen. Usually when someone says in that voice, it means something.
“Initially I was a little confused and as it moved forward, I was a little scared. It progressed from there.”
Franco said that Ahmed’s friend tried to catch him, but he “shook his hand”.
He told the court: “He started walking towards me at a very fast pace… I felt that he was going to attack me.
“It was his physical language. He was going near his waist and was putting his hood on his face and it was scaring for me. He was coming to do something.”
Asked how he reacted, Franco said: “I reacted … I stabbed her neck with a knife.”
He told the court that he took out a knife from his waistband and extended his hand, but his target was on Ahmed’s cheek.
He said: “I just wanted to cut it so that I could go away. He was coming towards me in that way, I just wanted him to stop.”
He said that when he was leaving the stabbing place, “I was not in good position. I was scared, confused, I was feeling a lot of mixed feelings.”
Franco said he left the center of the city and went home after 10 minutes decided to hand over himself to the police station, and told the court: “I thought it was the only option.
“I had to hand over myself, it was the right thing to do.”
He said that at that time he knew that he had bitten Ahmed, but he did not realize how serious his injury was, and “he felt it was just a dispute”.
The court heard that Franco was born in the Hudersfield, but he went to South Africa with his family as a child and returned at the age of 13.
He said that South Africa is “a beautiful place but it is quite dangerous”, he told the court that “his family’s house was” stolen at least once or twice a week “and” countless times “was cheated but never experienced violence as he always handed over his property.
Franco said that when he returned to the Hudersfield as a teenager, he was harassed and beaten in school due to his accident.
He told the jury members that when he was 17 years old, he was stabbed in his hand and was also hurt on his face during an incident in the last October.
After Ahmed’s death, his family said that he came to Britain from Syria after being injured in a bombing to live with his uncle and dreamed of becoming a doctor, “He wanted to fix others after what he endured”.
He said: “He decided to come to the UK as he believed in the values of human rights, safety and respect … he started settling with his uncle in his new life, he was excited to build with a new language, a new house and a future.
“Ahmed was kind, gentle and many promises. Losing him has brought an unimaginable emptiness to our hearts.
“We never thought that the place he had seen as a safe shelter would end his life.”
Franco has denied the murder but accepted the charge of holding a knife in a public place.
The lawsuit continues.