UK Orders Investigation Into ‘Red Flags Missed’ as Afghan Asylum Seeker Jailed for Murder

Victim Thomas Roberts had applied to join the Royal Marines

An undated police mugshot of Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, who murdered Thomas Roberts in Bournemouth, England, on March 12, 2022. (Dorset Police)

An asylum seeker from Afghanistan—who had already killed two people in Serbia—has been jailed for life for a murder in England as the government announced an investigation into “red flags missed” prior to his arrest.

Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai—who gave a false age when he arrived in Britain—was found guilty on Monday of the murder of Thomas Roberts, 21, who was stabbed to death in a Subway sandwich shop in Bournemouth, Dorset, in March 2022 following a trivial dispute over an e-scooter.

After he was convicted, the jury were told Abdulrahimzai had been convicted in absentia of the murder of two fellow Afghan migrants who were shot dead with a Kalashnikov rifle in August 2018 after a dispute about people-trafficking.

It has also emerged that he was convicted of a drugs offence in Italy but was given a non-custodial sentence.

Sentencing Abdulrahimzai to a minimum term of 29 years on Wednesday, Judge Paul Dugdale said of the Serbian murder conviction, “It is highly relevant and I do take it into account as an aggravating feature.”

Abdulrahimzai was born in Afghanistan and, after travelling across Asia and Europe, arrived at the port of Poole in Dorset in December 2019. He claimed to be 14, although it has since emerged he was 18 at the time.

While his asylum application was being processed, Abdulrahimzai lived in Poole and in March 2022 he travelled to nearby Bournemouth, where he murdered Roberts, who had applied to join the Royal Marines.

An undated image of Thomas Roberts (L) who was stabbed to death by Lawangeen Rahimzai, who is shown on CCTV footage on the night of the murder as he walked through Bournemouth, England, on March 12, 2022. (Roberts family/Dorset Police)

The victim’s mother, Dolores Roberts-Wallace, said: “I miss your beautiful face. That deep dimple of yours when you laugh. I will never see you as a father with your children. It is just unbelievable that you are gone forever.”

Roberts’s stepfather, Peter Wallace, told the court, “I know that Tommy would have been a great Marine.”

On Tuesday the Conservative MP for Bournemouth East, Tobias Ellwood, raised the matter in Parliament and asked for a full Home Office investigation into Abdulrahimzai.

Ellwood said, “Abdulrahimzai had a criminal record for murder in Serbia, a criminal record for drugs in Italy and then threatened his foster carer here in the UK and bluffed his way into our asylum system posing as a minor.”

Local MP Says Killer Was ‘Threat to Society’

“So many red flags missed that could have revealed what a threat to society this individual was. There are lessons to be learned,” added Ellwood, a former minister who chairs the Defence Select Committee.

A still from a CCTV video of Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, who stabbed to death a young man in a Subway restaurant, on a bus in Bournemouth, England, shortly before the murder, on March 11, 2022. (Dorset Police)

Immigration minister Robert Jenrick confirmed the Home Office would look into the “full circumstances” surrounding Abdulrahimzai.

Jenrick also promised “a more robust method for assessing the age of those coming into the country, taking advantage of modern scientific methods.”

Earlier this month the Age Estimation Science Advisory Committee recommended the Home Office introduce MRI scans and X-rays of teeth and bones to check the biological age of illegal immigrants who claim to be children.

The scientific advisers said the tests should be voluntary, but Alp Mehmet, chairman of Migration Watch UK, urged the government to force illegal immigrants whose age was in doubt to take the tests. He told The Times of London, “It would be absurd to have to accept a claimed age just because a person refuses to be scientifically assessed.”

On Monday Conor Burns, the Conservative MP for Bournemouth West, wrote on Twitter: “The murder of a young man on the streets of Bournemouth with a knife is truly shocking. That the murderer had previous convictions for violent behaviour and lied about his age to enter the UK pose serious questions. Asylum process needs to be made swift and the checks robust.”

Detective Chief Inspector Simon Huxter, from Dorset Police, said: “This case serves as another reminder of the truly devastating consequences of knife crime. Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai’s decision to go out in possession of a knife on the night of this murder and his utterly indefensible decision to use that weapon has seen a much-loved young man’s life cruelly taken away.”

Dorset Police also issued a statement in which they said: “Prior to his arrest for this offence, Dorset Police was not aware of any previous convictions related to Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai. As part of the investigation process Dorset Police will, where necessary, make enquiries to other agencies to obtain the relevant information, as we did in this this case.”

The Home Office put out a statement on Wednesday in which they said: “We welcome the judge’s sentencing in this horrific case. Our deepest sympathies are with the family and friends of Thomas Roberts, whose life has been needlessly cut short.”

“Foreign national offenders who exploit our system and commit crimes here in the UK will face the full force of the law, including deportation at the earliest opportunity for those eligible. The government is committed to stopping abuse of the immigration system, taking decisive action against those who try to play the system,” it added.

PA Media contributed to this report.