Afghan asylum seeker killed aspiring Royal Marine over e-scooter
Migrant who lied about his age stabbed 21-year-old after he tried to stop a fight on ‘chilled’ night out
AN AFGHAN asylum seeker who lied about his age stabbed an aspiring Royal Marine to death in a row over an electric scooter, a court heard.
Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, 21, twice plunged a knife into Thomas Roberts’s chest when the 21-year-old tried to stop the altercation between a friend and the killer. Abdulrahimzai got into an argument with James Medway over an e-scooter that he had been using when Mr Medway was on a “very chilled” night out with Mr Roberts.
Jurors were told yesterday that moments after intervening, Mr Roberts sustained two stab wounds to his chest from Abdulrahimzai, with one slicing through his heart. “A fatal encounter all about a scooter has cost this boy his life,” Nic Lobbenberg, prosecuting, told jurors.
Ahead of proceedings at Salisbury Crown Court in Wiltshire, Judge Paul Dugdale confirmed there was a legal dispute over Abdulrahimzai’s age and it had to be determined at a court hearing.
Following his arrest, Abdulrahimzai told officers he believed he was 16 years old and had entered the UK aged 14 from Afghanistan, leading him to be considered a juvenile.
He was unable to be identified in the media as a result. During yesterday’s hearing, it emerged he had told friends in Dorset he was 16. Jurors heard the blade he was carrying was “at least” 10cm long.
Mr Lobbenberg said Mr Roberts and Mr Medway visited several bars and clubs before the attack around 4.40am in Bournemouth, Dorset, on March 12 last year.
They had been looking to get a taxi home when Mr Medway suggested they take what appeared to be an unused e-scooter. But Abdulrahimzai quickly became “aggressive” over it. Abdulrahimzai fled on foot following the attack.
In CCTV footage, Mr Roberts could be seen collapsing seconds after he was stabbed.
Bradley Skinner, a security guard, told the hearing he sprinted over with a first aid kit to help.
Abdulrahimzai, from Poole, Dorset, had been drifting around Bournemouth town centre in the early hours of March 12 on the e-scooter and shortly before the attack attempted to headbutt one reveller outside a club, it was heard.
He admits manslaughter, but denies murder. The trial continues.