Asylum seeker who murdered aspiring Marine after killing 2 others before he arrived in UK posing as schoolboy is jailed
A KNIFE-obsessed asylum seeker who stabbed a Royal Marine hopeful to death after previously killing two others has been jailed for life.
Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, 21, posed as a schoolboy to come to the UK before murdering Tom Roberts in Bournemouth.
Shockingly, the Afghan national was convicted of murder in Serbia in 2018 after two people were shot dead outside a refugee area.
The killer was handed a 20-year sentence in his absence after entering the UK in 2019.
Abdulrahimzai has now been jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years after being found guilty of murdering Tom.
His dad Philip Roberts said ahead of sentencing: “I miss him very much in so many ways – his struggle to get up for work at 5.30am, I miss having his help fixing things at home, I miss all his friends coming to the house, I miss his lovely girlfriend coming to stay with him.
“Tommy is my only son, I always wanted a son and he has been taken away from me, leaving a terrible void. I miss him every day, every hour, every minute.
“Now I ask justice is served.”
The asylum seeker came to Britain claiming he was a 14-year-old whose parents had been killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
His lies were so convincing, he was placed in foster care where he nearly headbutted his carer.
Salisbury Crown Court heard Abdulrahimzai was caught with a knife by police but was only given a warning.
It has since emerged police were warned seven times he had a weapon leading up to Tom’s murder.
Two days before the slaughter, cricket club members warned Dorset Police he was carrying a machete.
Police received further warnings from his foster mother, who told officers six times she suspected he had a knife.
On March 12 last year, Abdulrahimzai got into a row with Tom’s pal James Medway over an e-scooter at a Subway sandwich shop.
When Royal Marine hopeful Tom intervened, he was stabbed in the heart and stomach by the “very aggressive” defendant.
Chilling CCTV showed Mr Medway chasing Abdulrahimzai through the city and into a park.
The killer was seen by horrified witnesses running “very fast” through the darkness in the busy town centre.
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.
While in Serbia, he went to a shed near a petrol station where two fellow Afghans were sleeping following a row.
Abdulrahimzai fired 18 rounds from an automatic gun – killing both men.
He claimed his parents were killed when the Taliban planted bombs at his family home as they suspected them of colluding with American forces.
Abdulrahimzai also said he was captured and tortured by the Taliban for up to three weeks before being left for dead on the side of a road.
The Home Office will now investigate “red flags missed” leading up the killing.
Ministers have also vowed to introduce X-ray checks to establish the true ages of migrants.