Foster mum gave serial killer a home believing he was a schoolboy asylum seeker

23 January 2023 , 21:34

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Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai was found guilty of stabbing aspiring marine 21-year-old Thomas Roberts to death outside a Subway sandwich shop (Image: PA)

A foster mum gave a serial killer a home believing he was a schoolboy asylum seeker.

Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai was found guilty of stabbing aspiring marine 21-year-old Thomas Roberts to death outside a Subway sandwich shop in Bournemouth.

The shocking incident took place following a row over a scooter last year after the young man tried to act as a "peacemaker" when Abdulrahimzai got into an argument with his friend James Medway.

But the refugee had previously been sentenced to 20 years in prison in his absence following a trial over two brutal killings in Serbia, a preliminary hearing for the UK court case heard.

His foster mum Nicola Marchant-Jones has spoken about her time living with Abdulrahimzai who she said was originally a "shy and bright lad" who suffered from "night terrors".

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Nicola Marchant-Jones foster carer of Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai (Nicola Marchant-JonesFacebook)

She described how she was told by authorities Abdulrahimzai was aged 14 and she "had to accept it" and had "no other way of checking".

Abdulrahimzai eventually left Ms Marchant-Jones' care when he became violent and almost headbutted her during one frightening incident.

Despite this, she said how revelations about his violent past came as a shock to her.

After being placed with her as a foster 'child', Ms Marchant-Jones said he became a "Jekyll and Hyde' character who carried knives.

Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, in a store in Bournemouth (PA)

She described how he was spoken to by police about carrying knives and would get into trouble at school for fighting.

The foster mum also recalled a shopping trip to JD Sports in which she discovered he was carrying a knife he had taken from her kitchen, reports the MailOnline.

Ms Marchant-Jones said: "But when he arrived to stay with me he barely spoke any English, so it was difficult to get his back story, but after he became more aggressive he moved on and we parted company in August 2021.

"At one point he said he was doing street fighting.

'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."

Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, on a bus in Bournemouth on the night of the stabbing (PA)

But the UK authorities had no idea about his violent past when he arrived on the country's shores, posing as a schoolboy, and Dorset Police were unaware as well even as they investigated his most recent murder.

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He was filmed in a street brawl before in the early hours of March 12, last year, an altercation arose after Mr Medway had wanted to take the scooter that Abdulrahimzai had left propped against the window of a shop.

A confrontation took place, lasting only 24 seconds in which Mr Roberts tried to talk the figt down before Abdulrahimzai, wearing an Afghan flag around his neck and balaclava partially covering his face, pulled out a 10inch knife and plunged it twice into Mr Roberts' chest.

The Afghan national then ran away to hide in nearby woodland, where he buried the knife and later burned some of the clothes he was wearing.

Afghan Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai (centre with black hood - always facing away from camera) having just headbutted a reveller on a night out (Dorset Police/Solent News)

But as he fled he dropped his mobile phone and it was traced to his home address.

Abdulrahimzai had first arrived in the UK in 2019 and told authorities he was 14 then, when he was 18, and then again on his arrest he said he was just 16, but it was determined he was in fact 20.

Just over a year before he made it to England, he had savagely gunned down two of his countrymen in Serbia after a row about trafficking.

Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai captured walking in Bournemouth on CCTV (PA)

Soon after arriving in the country, he attended a school and the court heard he "punched someone".

The court also heard his parents had been killed and he had been tortured by the Taliban so he carried a knife for his own protection.

Speaking of the brutal Serbia murders, 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. The name he was using was Huan Yasin.”

Abigail O'Leary