Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai (Jail 27 years , 1 month , 26 days left)

Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai was convicted of the murder of Thomas Roberts 21.

Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai had been having a row with another person over an e-scooter in Old Christchurch Road on 12 March 2022, when Thomas Roberts attempted to calm them down, acting as a peacemaker.

Thomas Roberts was said to have slapped slapped and possibly also punched Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai in the face after which Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai stabbed him twice.

At the trial Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai said that he had fled Afghanistan after the Taliban killed his parents and left him for dead and came to England, but feared that Thomas Roberts had been with the Taliban, saying that they had people everywhere and were trying to kill him.

Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai had arrived in England in December 2019 at which time he told the authorities he was 16, but it was later determined that he was 21.

He said that after leaving Afghanistan went to Serbia through Pakistan and Iran in October 2015 and then on to Norway after which he spent some time in Italy and Serbia. He then applied for asylum in Norway, but was refused in December 2019, and out of fear of being deported back to Afghanistan he came to England, arriving in Poole, Dorset later that same month.

After his conviction for the murder of Thomas Roberts it was revealed that he had been convicted of a double murder in Serbis in 2018 after he shot two people in a shed with a Kalashnikov rifle, firing 18 rounds at them. The jury were told after the trial that they had not been told of the previous murder conviction because there was a 'real risk it might have prejudiced their judgement'.