The Murder of Ahmad Mamdouh Al-Ibrahim
On the 3rd of April 2025, Alfie Franco was walking along Ramsden Street in a crowded Huddersfield Town Centre with Ebony his girlfriend when 16 year old Ahmad Mamdouh Al-Ibrahim brushed past her and continued on his way—until being called back by 20 year old Alfie.
Ahmad had only recently arrived in Huddersfield to live with his uncle after fleeing his home country in 2024 where he’d survived a bombing that left him injured. He came to the UK with a dream to become a doctor, to care for his sick mother and to give back to the country that had taken him in. That dream was stolen from him in seconds.
CCTV footage shows him out on the day of his murder, calm and peaceful, causing no trouble to anyone—until he walked too closely past the girlfriend of Alfie Franco.
Alfie—who was standing there eating an ice cream—called Ahmad back,reached into the waistband of his joggers, pulled out a flick knife, opened it and hid it in his pocket.
When Ahmad calmly approached, sensing no threat, Alfie ignored his girlfriend’s repeated pleas of “no, no, no,” and lunged forward, stabbing Ahmad in the neck.
Witnesses watched in horror as Ahmad staggered a few steps before collapsing to the ground. Alfie fled the scene, changing his clothes and sharpening his story.
Despite his best attempts to deceive, at Leeds Crown Court it was revealed that Alfie’s actions were deliberate— a calculated stabbing. Emergency crews managed to stabilise Ahmad at the scene, but the 6cm wound had already done irreparable damage—cutting through the jugular vein on the right, the windpipe and the carotid artery on the left. He died shortly after reaching hospital.
When the news reached his family, Ahmad’s father suffered a heart attack that required surgery.
Meanwhile, Alfie handed himself in three hours later—confident in his version of events. He would claim to police that he felt his life was in danger, claiming he saw a knife in Ahmad’s waistband, though no knife was ever recovered from the scene. However, one that did match his description was later found in Alfie’s own bedroom.
He then claimed he never meant to kill Ahmad—that he only meant to “cut his cheek” and blamed the fatal wound on being clumsy with his non dominant hand given he was “eating ice cream” at the time. But video evidence from Alfie’s own phone showed him practicing opening and using that same flick knife with his left hand on numerous occasions.
He also tried blaming drugs, claiming he’d taken a mix of cannabis, cocaine, diazepam, codeine and ketamine. Toxicology reports found only a small trace of cannabis—which the Judge said would not be enough to impair him.
Despite some mainstream reports trying to downplay it, the facts make it clear; this was not random, not impulsive. Alfie went out looking for trouble. As Judge Howard Crowson stated, “The messages exchanged with your associate Jayden the night before reveal that you were then prepared to use a knife to stab a person who was a stranger to you, and you persisted despite Jayden’s reservations.”
Those same messages showed Alfie posing with knives, bragging “artillery coming along nice.” When questioned about the photos, he said he wanted to look “like a big man.”
The jury took six hours to reach their decision. Alfie had pleaded guilty to possessing a knife but not guilty to murder. On the 10th of October 2025, the jury found him guilty. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison—a sentence he must serve in full before being considered for parole.
In court, Richard Wright KC read a heartbreaking statement from Ahmad’s uncle, Ghazwan Al-Ibrahim, on behalf of the family:
“I am unable to describe the impact of this heinous crime and the effect it has had on everyone. His mother still cries over his clothes because they smell of him.”
Mr Al-Ibrahim added:
“As Ahmad’s uncle, I will always carry the guilt that Ahmad had come to the UK, and I could not keep him safe.”
After sentencing, another message from the heartbroken family was read aloud—
“Ahmad, we love you, we miss you and we will do for ever.”
This tragedy wasn’t just a moment of madness. It was a choice —a young man went out with the intent to harm, and a young boy, full of promise, paid the price with his life.
Ahmad didn’t deserve this. No one does. He came here to heal and to build a future, not to become another name in the long list of lives taken by knives.
We’ve lost too many—Luke Miller, Sasha Marsden, Levi Kent, Harvey Willgoose and now Ahmad Mamdouh Al-Ibrahim. Everyone of them had families, dreams, futures that should have been protected. Each loss is a wound that never heals.
If you carry a knife because you think it makes you big and tough—stop. There is nothing hard, nothing brave, nothing remotely impressive about picking up a weapon. The real risk you take is not to your reputation, but to your life via another person’s life. There’s nothing smart about losing your life by death or by decades in prison.
If you want to prove you’re “hard,” try something that actually takes courage like TALKING. Make a bargain, one that you both walk away from!
We’ve seen what a single choice does—Luke Miller, Levi Kent, Sasha Marsden, Harvey Willgoose and now Ahmad Mamdouh Al-Ibrahim.
Their names are not statistics. They were a daughter, sons, friends, futures. Don’t let your family become a name that gets added to that list.
