The Home Office has been spared an inquest into how an Afghan asylum seeker who posed as a child before murdering an aspiring Marine was allowed into Britain.
Tom Roberts, 21, a nightclub DJ, was stabbed in the chest by Afghan Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai outside a Subway in the early hours of March 12, 2022, when he tried to intervene in a row over an e-scooter.
Abdulrahimzai, who was actually 19, had already murdered two people in Serbia before being allowed into the UK posing as a 14-year-old orphan.
He was placed into two secondary schools in Bournemouth, Dorset, and was expelled from one for carrying a knife in school. Two days before he killed Mr Roberts he was stopped by police for carrying a machete.
Mr Roberts’ family has slammed a coroner’s decision to scrap an inquest into his murder and they claim authorities are trying to ‘sweep it under the carpet’.
Abdulrahimzai had already murdered two people before being allowed into the UK posing as a 14-year-old orphan
Tom Roberts, 21, (pictured) was stabbed in the chest twice by Afghan Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai
Abdulrahimzai was jailed for 29 years for Mr Roberts’ murder following a trial at Salisbury Crown Court in January 2023.
It later emerged that he was flagged as ‘susceptible to terrorism’ by the Home Office’s Prevent anti-terrorism task group in 2021.
Mr Roberts’ family have previously accused the Border Force and Home Office of systematic failures which allowed Abdulrahimzai into the country.
They had pinned their hopes on a full inquest into Mr Roberts’ death to publicly scrutinise the failings and ask questions.
However, after a number of pre-inquest review hearings, senior coroner for Dorset Rachael Griffin has now ruled that there is no need for a full inquest to take place.
Mr Roberts’ family said they feel like the matter was being ‘swept under the carpet’ and accused the authorities of a cover-up.
They claim that if immigration officials had carried out proper checks on Abdulrahimzai after he arrived on a ferry in Poole, Mr Roberts would still be alive today.
Dolores Wallace-Roberts, Mr Robert’s mother, said: ‘I am very disappointed by the coroner’s decision not to resume the investigation into his death. It is unfair.
Armed police arresting Abdulrahimzai for murdering Mr Roberts in Bournemouth
The asylum seeker, seen here on bus CCTV, claimed his parents were killed by the Taliban
‘The Home Office don’t want to engage with us. They are accountable and there is negligence there but they just block any attempts to find out more.
‘I have very serious concerns about how Border Force checks the identity of those arriving in England and whether they are criminals and how BCP Council checks the ages of those claiming to be children.
‘I have concerns about the response of Dorset Police to a report of someone carrying a machete in a public place and the failure of the authorities to check and share information, which allows the status quo to continue.
‘Everything is wrong in this country and it will continue to happen again.’
Mr Roberts’ step-father, Peter Wallace, said: ‘It feels like everything is being swept under the carpet and it is a bit of a cover-up.
‘The Home Office has never apologised to me because if they did they would have to admit their failings.
‘It is disappointing that lessons will not be learnt about their complete failures, but they don’t want them out in the open.’
Mrs Griffin ruled the inquest did not meet the criteria for Article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights, that the state knew or ought to have known of an immediate risk to an individual’s life they have to take reasonable steps to deal with that risk.
The Afghan national was convicted of the murder of aspiring Royal Marine Thomas Roberts (pictured), 21, outside a Subway sandwich shop in Bournemouth
The coroner said Mr Roberts and Abdulrahimzai were strangers and although there was an ’emerging pattern of violent behaviour and a risk to others of harm’, at the time of the murder the illegal immigrant had not used a knife in an act of violence nor made any threats to kill since arriving in the UK in December 2019.
But the catalogue of mistakes and missed opportunities that would have revealed Abdulrahimzai’s murderous past make for damning reading.
Outlining the facts, Mrs Griffin said Abdulrahimzai arrived in the UK on December 26, 2019, hidden in a vehicle on a ferry from Cherbourg and told Border Force officials he was 13, but no age assessment was carried out.
His fingerprints were taken a few weeks later and revealed he had links with Norway and Italy.
The fingerprints were sent to both countries but with no request for any further information. If this had been done it would have revealed his true age.
On January 29, 2020, his foster carer reported that a dentist said Abdulrahimzai was older than he had indicated and while it was felt an age assessment was needed, it was not done because the authorities felt a mental health assessment was needed first.
The age assessment had still not been done by the time Mr Roberts was killed.
From December 21, 2020, and throughout 2021, there were a number of incidents and concerns raised around Abdulrahimzai carrying knives, including allegedly chasing another pupil at his school with a knife, which he denied.
In May 2021 he hurt another student at school, causing injury, and in July of that year, he tried to headbutt his foster carer, who managed to move out of the way.
In September, when he had been placed somewhere else, he was accused of assaulting another child.
A police cordon outside the Subway sandwich shop on Old Christchurch Road in Bournemouth
The police cordoned off Horseshoe Common in Bournemouth following the fatal stabbing in March 2022
In January 2022 the authorities held a meeting confirming an age assessment would be carried out because Abdulrahimzai had been ‘bringing females back to his placement’ and was refusing to attend school or engage in education.
On the evening of March 10, about 30 hours before Mr Roberts was stabbed, police received a call about a youth carrying a machete-style knife in public.
The coroner’s report states that when police attended his address to speak to Abdulrahimzai the gates were locked and they could see a member of staff asleep at his desk but could not gain access and no further action would be taken.
Abdulrahimzai’s fingerprints were not shared with Interpol until after Mr Robert’s death, which revealed in September 2022 that he had been convicted of a double homicide in Serbia.
Mrs Griffin said there was a system of checks in place when Abdulrahimzai entered the country to check identity and undertake an age assessment so it was not a systemic failure.
She said: ‘Whilst it has to be accepted there were missed opportunities to undertake some checks, for example PNC checks and checks with Norway and Italy when Border Force sent updated fingerprints to them, it cannot be said that had these checks been done, the course of events that led to Tommy’s death would have been any different.
‘It is too speculative and remote to state that there was a causal link between these missed opportunities and Tommy’s death.’
Mr Wallace added: ‘Tommy’s death has torn our family apart.
‘There were so many warning signs that Abdulrahimzai should not be here yet the Home Office did nothing about it.
‘He was kicked out of Norway and Italy but not here and for that reason I hold the Home Office responsible for Tommy’s death.
‘If someone had done their job he would still be alive.
‘It was so obvious that the guy was just waiting to kill someone and it just happened unfortunately to be Tommy.
‘He should have been locked up before he killed Tommy. I’m so angry about it.
‘It is not just the Home Office but immigration officials and social workers. Everyone who was involved in him (Abdulrahimzai) being here is guilty because none of them did their jobs. He was flagged up every week and every month.
‘He was carrying a knife and threatening people with a knife and nobody did anything.
‘He spun some story about coming from a war-torn country. That was all b******s’.
‘We will never be able to bring Tommy back but they still let in thousands of people without proper checks and this will keep happening.’
BCP Council said that once immigration services deemed Abdulrahimzai as under 18 years old, it fulfilled its duty of responsibility by taking him into care as an unaccompanied child asylum seeker.
BCP Council leader Millie Earl said: ‘In this case, Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai claimed he was a child upon arrival.
‘Immigration services carry out an initial age enquiry at point of entry and once an individual claims they are, or is identified as, under 18 they must be treated as a child.
‘To follow government guidance and to fulfil BCP Council’s duty of responsibility, Abdulrahimzai was taken into care as an unaccompanied child asylum seeker in December 2019.
‘Everyone living in our community should feel safe and we will do all we can to ensure that tragedies such as this do not happen again in the BCP area, or nationally.
‘This is why we are working with the relevant Government departments and agencies to identify where improvements can be made throughout the national process of assessing and placing asylum seekers.’
A spokesperson for Dorset Police said the force fully co-operated with the inquest process and carried out an internal investigation after reports Abdulrahimzai was seen with a knife two days before Mr Roberts’ death.
They said: ‘We co-operated fully with the inquest process and carried out an internal investigation by the Force’s Professional Standards Department into a report that was made on Thursday 10 March 2022 with information that a member of the public had seen a young person in possession of a knife.
‘The young person was identified to be Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai and officers made enquiries at his address to try and locate him during the early hours of Friday 11 March 2022, but they were not able to make contact with him.
‘The investigation found that there was no evidence that Dorset Police officers were aware of any direct intention or threat made by Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai to harm anyone and the level of risk he posed was not known.
‘There was no misconduct identified for any officers or staff.
‘We remain committed to learning from tragic incidents such as this and identified opportunities for improving our response in incidents such as this.
‘Youth violence and knife crime is a priority for Dorset Police and extensive work is ongoing to reduce the presence of dangerous weapons on our streets.’
A Home Office spokesperson said: ‘Our deepest sympathies remain with the loved ones of Thomas Roberts.
‘We will consider the findings of the Coroner’s report, but it would not be appropriate to comment further in the interim.’
