Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai reportedly tried to date under-age girls, as 21-year-old jailed for life over killing Royal Marines hopeful
An Afghan asylum seeker who stabbed Thomas Roberts to death during a row over an e-scooter in Bournemouth, Dorset, in the early hours of March 12 2022. has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years.
Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai killed aspiring marine Thomas Roberts, 21, outside a Bournemouth Subway sandwich shop in March last year.
Following his conviction on Monday, it was revealed Abdulrahimzai, 21, was already a convicted killer who gunned down two people in Serbia in 2018, and dealt drugs in Italy.
He had been convicted and sentenced to 20 years prison in the eastern European country in his absence.
The Afghan national was granted entry to the UK in 2019 after telling authorities he was a 14-year-old schoolboy whose parents had been killed by the Taliban.
His lies were so convincing, he was placed in foster care with a woman who told Daily Mail she ‘had to accept he was 14’.
A court heard Mr Roberts was acting as ‘peacemaker’ after his friend James Medway got into an argument with Abdulrahimzai in the early hours of March 12.
Mr Medway wanted to take an e-scooter Abdulrahimzai had claimed for himself and left propped against the Subway on Old Christchurch Road.
The confrontation, which lasted only 24 seconds, saw Mr Roberts slap Abdulrahimzai in the face.
He responded by revealing a knife he had hidden between two pairs of trousers and stabbed Mr Roberts twice before running away into nearby woodland.
Abdulrahimzai buried the knife in the woods before burning his trousers, jacket, and an Afghan flag he was wearing as a scarf.
He was arrested after police traced his mobile phone that he dropped as he fled.
The convicted triple killer admitted manslaughter at Salisbury Crown Court but a jury found him guilty of murder.
On Wednesday, parents of children who attended the same secondary school where he was placed alleged that Abdulrahimzai had approached younger girls while posing as a schoolboy.
One mother, Abbie Mercy, wrote on social media: ‘This scumbag was placed … in my son’s year after he had murdered two people at pretty much point blank range!
‘He was allowed to be with two of my children on a daily basis under the assumption he was 14. He was asking girls out.
‘My anger is not with the school, I feel their hands were tied. It’s the local authority and the Government.
‘Where’s the duty of care towards my children?’
Another mother, Cherri Parsons, said: ‘I was fuming when I found out he had been placed in my 14-year-old daughter’s year group.
‘Any kind of inappropriate behaviour could have occurred, as he was asking 14-year-old girls out and changing with 14-year-old boys in PE … not to mention the fact he liked to carry knives around.
‘School authorities did not know that he had killed anyone while he was a pupil.’
Jailing him for life, Judge Paul Dugdale said: ‘I sentence on the basis that Mr Abdulrahimzai was at all times the aggressor that night and by his behaviour created a situation that led to Thomas Roberts’ death.
‘Over and above that, he was looking for trouble.’
Turning to Abdulrahimzai, the judge continued: ‘You started the conflict, and throughout you were the threatening aggressor.
‘In seconds you took the life of a thoroughly decent man with a bright future who was loved greatly by so many people.
‘Your momentary act of extreme, senseless violence has left a family with a tragic loss that they will feel for the rest of their lives.’
