'Teen' in Brit school unmasked as convicted killer who murdered two with AK-47
A violent teenage enrolled at a UK school has been convicted of killing an aspiring Royal Marine - a year after gunning down two fellow Afghans with an AK-47.
Experienced killer Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai's pretended to be a 14-year-old schoolboy despite being 18 years old when he arrived in the UK.
While claiming asylum to enter the country, authorities had no idea about his gruesome history.
In the early hours of March 12 last year, Abdulrahimzai stabbed to death 21-year-old Marine hopeful Thomas Roberts in a city centre argument over an E-scooter and told detectives he believed he was 16.
Wearing an Afghan flag around his neck and balaclava partially covering his face, Abdulrahimzai pulled out a 10inch knife and plunged it twice into 'peacemaker' Mr Roberts' chest.
Baby boy has spent his life in hospital as doctors are 'scared' to discharge him
Abdulrahimzai holding a knife, which he posted to his TikTok account (Dorset Police/Solent News)
Snapchat footage of the killing (Dorset Police/Solent News)Mr Roberts had been trying to break up the row between his friend James Medway, 24, and "aggressive" Abdulrahimzai over the scooter after a night out in Bournemouth, Dorset.
A court heard after his arrival in the UK, Abdulrahimzai posed with a knife on TikTok, was filmed on Snapchat assaulting a man in the street, got into street fights for money, and scared his foster carer with his love of knives.
A British court ruled he was in fact 18 when he arrived in coastal town Poole, Dorset, from a French port, and was 20 when he killed Mr Roberts.
He even went to a British school after his arrival - with a court hearing in November 2020 he "punched someone".
Dorset Police's mugshot of Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, 21 (PA)Today at Salisbury Crown Court, Wilts, jurors convicted him of murdering Mr Roberts following a two week trial and over 11 hours of deliberations.
In the dock, wearing a blue suit and tie and with his black hair tied in a knot, Abdulrahimzai clenched his eyes and raised his head as he was convicted. Mr Roberts family wept in court as the verdicts were delivered.
At the hearing, it emerged he murdered two people in Serbia in the summer of 2018. He was also convicted of drug offences in Italy in February 2017.
Prosecutor Nic Lobbenberg KC said: "Between July 31 and August 1 in 2018, during the evening in in Dobrinci… near the motorway, he murdered two people also from Afghanistan.
Abdulrahimzai had killed two people in Serbia before entering the UK (PA)“The name he was using was Huan Yasin.”
Mr Lobbenberg KC said Afghans were staying in a shed in the area when an argument broke out over trafficking.
Disabled woman paralysed after falling from wheelchair on plane walkway dies
“The defendant arrived and an argument broke about the business of transporting migrants.
“He was armed with an automatic assault rifle, two others had pistols… one of the group said ‘who is the smuggler?’ and then aimed their weapons at the victims
“He shot 18 rounds of a 7.62 calibre Kalashnikov.
“It’s a military weapon with great firepower and rapid rate of fire.
“The range of the shooting was said to be relatively short, three to 10 metres.”
Police video of his arrest (PA)Mr Lobbenberg KC said the killer did not move position and fired six rounds into each victim, with some bullets hitting their heads.
“An enormous number found their target,” he said.
Abdulrahimzai, who fled Serbia, was later identified by a taxi driver who drove him away from the scene, it was heard.
The taxi driver said he was "sweating" and "showing signs of anxiety", with the court also hearing he got the weapon from "gypsies".
In November 2020 he was convicted of murder in his absence by a Serbian court, having been wanted in the country since the attacks.
He was understood to be 15 at the time of the killings, it was heard.
Abdulrahimzai in a store in Bournemouth, in footage shown to the jury (PA)Judge Paul Dugdale said: "This only became apparent to the UK authorities after the commission of this offence we have been dealing with in this trial."
He added: "It's a terrifying case with the use of an automatic firearm possibly linked to the business of trafficking."
Barrister Jo Martin KC, defending, added that it was only 'brought to police attention' while they conducted international enquiries.
Victim Mr Roberts, a popular nightclub DJ from Bournemouth, collapsed to the ground seconds after the stabbing at 4.40am outside a Subway sandwich store in Bournemouth and died in hospital.
Abdulrahimzai (centre with black hood) having just headbutted a reveller on a night out (Dorset Police/Solent News)The "kind and funny" Marine hopeful had been enjoying a "chilled" night with Mr Medway when he suggested they take a Beryl E-scooter home rather than a taxi.
However, Abdulrahimzai quickly confronted the pair and 'threatened' Mr Medway in broken English, with Mr Roberts stepping in to try to break up the fight.
“A fatal encounter all about a scooter which has cost this boy his life," prosecutor Mr Lobbenberg KC told jurors.
Walking in Bournemouth. His victim was said to be the "peacemaker" of his group (PA)Mr Lobbenberg KC added: "Thomas was the peacemaker, he came between the two men. For his troubles, he received two stab wounds."
Giving evidence, Mr Medway said his friend Mr Roberts was "trying to calm the situation" and that the Afghan "just lunged for Tom".
Mr Medway chased after Abdulrahimzai and other revellers on a night out quickly rushed to help dying Mr Roberts, who suffered 10cm deep wounds and multiple cardiac arrests.
It was heard Abdulrahimzai claimed the Taliban killed his mother and father when he was younger and stabbed him 28 times, leaving him for dead on the side of the road.
The court heard that Abdulrahimzai left Afghanistan in October 2015 and arrived in Serbia the same month.
Later in October 2015 - having given a number of different names and ages to authorities - he arrived in Norway, and in July 2016 he was in the city of Trieste, Italy, before returning to Serbia in June 2017.
In October 2018 he returned to Norway, and having been denied asylum, travelled to the UK from the French port of Cherbourg, arriving in Poole, Dorset, in December 2019.
Police cordon outside Subway on Old Christchurch Road in Bournemouth the morning after the murder (Max Willcock/BNPS)When he arrived in the UK he told authorities he thought he was 14 and when arrested for Mr Roberts' murder he said he believed he was 16, leading to an unusual court hearing to determine his age.
As a result, he could not be identified in the press due to legal reasons.
However, checks were carried out and at court it was determined he was born in October 2001. He was transferred from a young offender institution and a judge ruled that he could be identified in the press as he is an adult.
Reports from UK health authorities and social workers said the asylum seeker "sometimes struggles to know if he is in the past or present, and is unable to imagine his future".
When he arrived in Poole, Dorset, in 2019 Abdulrahimzai felt "an anger he could not stop", and suffered "paranoid thoughts that people are out to get him".
Nicola Marchant-Jones, who fostered Abdulrahimzai from early 2020 to mid-2021 in Poole, told the court he was a 'Jekyll and Hyde' character who could go 'from zero to 100 almost instantly'.
She said the "troubled" asylum seeker's default setting was to "fight" and that he thought it was his "right" to carry a knife, having been persuaded to after being beaten up in Bournemouth in November 2020.
Ms Marchant-Jones said he often got into trouble at school for fighting.
On a shopping trip to JD Sports to buy a new coat she caught the defendant with a knife - which he had taken from her kitchen - and took it from him.
He had made a sheath for the weapon, and kept it on his waist.
"At one point he said he was doing street fighting," she added. "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."
Giving evidence, Abdulrahimzai said he attacked Mr Roberts out of instinct. He had admitted manslaughter but denied murder.
He said: "I was too scared for my life, I was thinking they were the people who were trying to kill me.
"I just reacted, I stabbed him twice... I acted instinctively [and] I lost control.
"I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart, I wish I could change it."
It was heard Abdulrahimzai burned his clothes and buried his knife after the murder, but dropped his phone behind so detectives were able to trace him.
Abdulrahimzai will now be sentenced for murder on Wednesday.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
