Asylum seeker who killed Thomas Roberts in Bournemouth murdered two other men in Serbia

He was the double drug murderer whose violent past eluded Home Office and Border Force agents when he applied for asylum on Boxing Day 2019.

But just two years after arriving in Poole, Dorset, having misled officials into thinking he was a 14-year-old boy, “knife-obsessed” Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai added a third victim to his body count, murdering the innocent Thomas Roberts in cold blood.

The 21-year-old Afghan national stabbed the would-be Royal Marine to death during an argument over an electric scooter in Bournemouth town center in March last year.

And on Monday, Abdulrahimzai was found guilty of murder after a trial at Salisbury Crown Court, where his blood-stained journey from Afghanistan to Bournemouth was finally revealed.

The Afghan national was charged with the murder of 21-year-old would-be Royal Marine Thomas Roberts (above) outside a Subway sandwich shop in Bournemouth on March 12 last year, stabbing him twice in the chest with a ‘blade’ of 10 cm’.

In a shocking revelation, the court heard how Abdulrahimzai had received a 20-year prison sentence in his absence for mercilessly killing two fellow Afghans in Serbia, shooting them both with an AK-47 assault rifle in 2018.

Earlier, the court heard how Abdulrahimzai, a 15-year-old boy, had been tortured and left for dead by the Taliban, who had previously executed his parents when he was just four or five years old.

Abdulrahimzai’s journey can now be revealed.

October 2001: Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai said, like many Afghan children, he did not know his date of birth. But a court later found that he was born at this time, just weeks after al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden masterminded the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Abdulrahimzai said he was four or five years old when his parents were killed by the Taliban in the eastern Laghman province.

October 2015: After being tortured by the Taliban and left for dead on the side of the road, Abdulrahimzai is smuggled out of Afghanistan via Pakistan by a man described as his ‘uncle’. They take his fingerprints in Serbia and, a few weeks later, in Norway.

Police released a photo of 21-year-old Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai after he was convicted of murder.

July 2016: Abdulrahimzai, using one of his many assumed names, has his fingerprints taken in the northeastern port city of Trieste, Italy.

February 2017: He is convicted of two drug offenses in Italy and is given a suspended sentence.

June 2017: Abdulrahimzai is back in Serbia.

July 31 to August 1, 2018: Abdulrahimzai shoots two fellow Afghans with an assault rifle in a shed near a highway in Dobrinci in an apparent argument over people smuggling. He flees in a taxi. He is declared a wanted man by the Serbian authorities.

October 2018: Abdulrahimzai is back in Norway.

November 2019: He applies for asylum in Norway, but is denied.

Abdulrahimzai (centre in black hood) was caught on camera headbutting a reveler on a night out just minutes before he murdered a Royal Marine wannabe in a row on an e-scooter.

CCTV footage released yesterday showed the moment Abdulrahimzai (circled in white) flees on foot while being chased by Mr Medway (circled in yellow).

December 26, 2019: Weeks later, Abdulrahimzai is traveling as an unaccompanied passenger on a Brittany Ferries service from Cherbourg in France to Poole in Dorset. Upon arrival, he tells officials that he is 14 years old, when in fact he is believed to be around 19 years old.

January 2, 2020: You are placed in the foster care of Nicola Marchant-Jones, an experienced foster carer in Bournemouth. Adbulrahimzai, who is initially unable to speak English, later begins attending the local school, where the depraved killer went on to ‘terrorize’ the girls, sending them indecent selfies and beating up the boys.

November 2020: Abdulrahimzai goes on trial, in his absence, in Serbia for the double murder. He is convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

December 2020: Ms. Marchant-Jones raises the alarm for social services, who contact the police, after she sees Abdulrahimzai with a knife during a shopping trip. She is spoken to, but not arrested.

August 2021: Abdulrahimzai has an argument with his adoptive mother and leaves the house. He is later placed with another family.

March 10, 2022: Dorset police receive a report that he is carrying a knife. However, no weapon is found and no arrests are made.

Armed police are shown arresting the Afghan national, now revealed to be a triple murderer.

An image of the knife being held by Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai in a video posted to his TikTok page.

March 12, 2022: Abdulrahimzai headbutts a man during a fight outside a nightclub in Bournemouth. Moments later, he argues with 24-year-old James Medway over an electric scooter. 21-year-old Thomas Roberts acts as ‘peacemaker’ but is stabbed twice by Abdulrahimzai. The incident lasts less than half a minute. The assassin escapes on foot. Royal Marine wannabe Mr Roberts later dies in hospital.

March 13, 2022: Abdulrahimzai is arrested after accidentally leaving his phone at the scene. He tells the officers that he is 16 years old.

January 23, 2023: Abdulrahimzai, determined by court to be 21, is convicted of murdering Mr. Roberts

Abdulrahimzai will be sentenced on Wednesday for the murder of Mr. Roberts.