On January 23, Monday, a UK Court convicted Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, an Afghan national for the murder of a British national Thomas Roberts following an argument over an e-scooter in Bournemouth, Dorset, in the early hours of March 12, 2022. Following the conviction, it emerged that the Afghan asylum seeker was legally admitted to the United Kingdom after he lied to the authorities about his age.
Afghan migrant Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai has been found guilty of murdering 21-year-old Thomas Roberts outside a takeaway in Bournemouth.
— TalkTV (@TalkTV) January 24, 2023
After the trial, the jury heard he had previously been convicted of murder in Serbia and sentenced to 20 years in prison in his absence. pic.twitter.com/BKZGnkOEqc
According to reports, the now 21-year-old Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai misled the Border Force and the Home Office when he arrived in Dorset on a Brittany Ferries service from Cherbourg in 2019, claiming to be 14 years old. On Monday, when the jury in Salisbury Crown Court found him guilty of murdering Roberts, the murderer’s entire criminal history was made public.
Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai stabbed Thomas Roberts, an aspiring Royal Marine, thrice in the chest during a row over an e-scooter in Bournemouth, Dorset, in the early hours of March 12, 2022.
The footage of the arrest of Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, which the Dorset police made public, emerged online. The court revealed that when Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai was arrested, he told UK authorities he was 16, but an examination of his teeth determined that he is now 21.
UK police officials told the court that they were unaware of Abdulrahimzai’s prior crimes, which were carried out under the alias ‘Huan Yasin,’ until they began investigating Roberts’ murder.
The authorities confirmed that the asylum seeker first went to Serbia through Pakistan and Iran in October 2015 before arriving in Norway later that month. Abdulrahimzai then left Norway and spent some time in Italy and then again went to Serbia where he killed two Afghan men before fleeing to the UK. The accused was allegedly 15 years old at the time of the murders. According to the prosecution, the killings in Serbia occurred in 2018 near the capital Belgrade.
A Serbian court found Abdulrahimzai guilty of murder in his absence and sentenced him to 20 years in jail.
Additionally, Abdulrahimzai had also been convicted of drug peddling in Italy and received a non-custodial term after pleading guilty.
Abdulrahimzai, who was born in Afghanistan, was, however, granted entry to the United Kingdom after telling authorities that he was a 14-year-old schoolboy whose parents had been executed by the Taliban. He had so well misled the UK authorities that after arriving in the UK, the Afghan was assigned a foster carer, Nicola Marchant-Jones, on account of his age.
Abdulrahimzai was fostered by Nicola from early 2020 to mid-2021 before he was moved to another family. According to reports, he was removed from her care when, during an argument, he nearly headbutted her.
At his trial at Salisbury Crown Court, Abdulrahimzi’s foster mother Marchant-Jones said that Abdulrahimzai was a “very troubled individual” despite first appearing as “shy, kind, and sweet.”
She added that the accused “had mood swings” and would “go from zero to 100 practically rapidly”. She told the court how she feared that Abdulrahimzai might “do something with a knife.”
As per reports, he was not only given foster care by UK authorities but also sent to a school in Bournemouth where he terrorised younger classmates.
A mother of a child who went to the same school reportedly told The Sun, “The kids were petrified of him and knew he was much older than he was pretending to be.”
The report also suggests that he allegedly scared girl classmates into sending him obscene selfies.
In addition, a Snapchat video played in court showed him in a street brawl with another man.
This is what the uk government is importing.
— casey severide (@caseyseveride1) January 17, 2023
Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai. Afghan ‘asylum seeker’ is on trial charged with murdering aspiring Royal Marine Thomas Roberts,
“we are Afghan we keep it real… I’m 100% sure you wouldn’t forget your lessons for the rest of your life.” pic.twitter.com/CpARCIjKzE
Months earlier the murderer had shared pictures of himself with a machete on TikTok, despite being warned by his foster parent, police, and social workers not to do so.
The sentence for Abdulrahimzai will be announced on January 25.
