I’m the foster mum of asylum seeker who murdered Brit & was let into UK despite killer past – he attacked me too
THE foster mum of an asylum seeker who lied about his age to enter the UK before murdering an aspiring Royal Marine has revealed he attacked her as well.
Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, 21, fatally knifed Thomas Roberts, 21, an aspiring Royal Marine, during a row over and e-scooter in Bournemouth in March last year.
It has now been revealed Abdulrahimzai was previously convicted of murder in Serbia.
The killer was handed a 20-year sentence in his absence after two people were shot dead outside a refugee area by a petrol station.
He was allowed into the UK in 2019 after he told authorities he was a 14-year-old schoolboy whose parents had been killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
His lies allowed him to be placed with foster mum Nicola Marchant-Jones who said that she had “had to accept he was 14” and had “no other way of checking it”.
Abdulrahimzai was fostered by Nicola from early 2020 to mid-2021 before he was moved to another family.
At his trial at Salisbury Crown Court, she said he was initially a “shy, bright lad” who suffered from “night terrors” but grew a “Jekyll and Hyde” personality having been caught with knives a number of times.
Speaking to the MailOnline today, she said he left her care after becoming violent.
She said she hadn’t been aware of his background before he came to the UK and the murder of Mr Roberts had come as a shock to her.
Nicola said: “When he first came he was quite a shy gentle boy but then all of a sudden he changed, his personality changed completely and he became a very different person.
CARRIED KNIFE
“He was spoken to by the police about carrying knives and he seemed to think he had the right to carry a knife to defend himself.”
She added that he would often get into trouble at school for fighting.
On another occasion they had gone to JD Sports to buy a new coat but she caught him with a knife he had taken from her kitchen, and took it from him.
However, when he was caught with a knife Dorset Police only gave him words of advice.
Nicola said that one point he had told her he was “doing street fighting”.
She said: “He appeared to have lots of money. I didn’t see any money but he was buying nice things. He said he got £100 for ten minutes fighting.”
NEARLY HEADBUTTED FOSTER MUM
He was removed from her care when, during an argument, he nearly headbutted her.
On March 12 last year, Abdulrahimzai had got into a row with Tom’s pal James Medway over an e-scooter.
When Royal Marine hopeful Tom intervened, he was stabbed in the heart and stomach by the “very aggressive” defendant.
Tragically, the time between the argument breaking out and Tom being knifed was just 24 seconds.
Jurors were told Abdulrahimzai “revels in violence” and had a “fascination with knives”.
He posed with 10 inch blades on TikTok to get followers from “people out there liking knives”.
He was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder after claiming he thought Tom was a Taliban agent sent to kill him.
Abdulrahimzai claimed to be 16 when he was arrested on suspicion of murdering Tom.
But after examination of his teeth, it was ruled he was actually 21 years old.
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 Serbia.
Reports in Serbian media described how two Afghans were gunned down near the village of Dobrinci in August 2018.
At the opening of the trial last week prosecutor Nic Lobbenberg KC told jurors: “Thomas was the peacemaker, he came between the two men. For his troubles, he received two stab wounds.”
Abdulrahimzai will be sentenced on January 25.