The foster mother of an Afghan asylum seeker who murdered an aspiring Royal Marine has recalled how he became a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ character who ‘thought he had the right to carry a knife’.
Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, 21, murdered Thomas Roberts, 21, during an argument over an e-scooter in Bournemouth town centre in March last year.
He had been handed a 20-year prison sentence in his absence for killing two people in Serbia, but was granted entry to the UK after telling authorities he was a 14-year-old schoolboy whose parents had been killed by the Taliban.
Abdulrahimzai deceived Border Force and the Home Office so comprehensively that he was placed with foster mother Nicola Marchant-Jones, who told MailOnline today that she had ‘had to accept he was 14’ and had ‘no other way of checking it.’
But Abdulrahimzai went on to become a street fighter who attacked his foster mother and boasted about his love of knives on TikTok.
Ms Marchant-Jones fostered him from early 2020 to mid-2021 in Poole before he was moved to a different family.
She earlier told Salisbury Crown Court that Abdulrahimzai was initially a ‘shy, bright lad’ who suffered from ‘night terrors’, but grew into a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ personality after being caught with knives several times.
And speaking to MailOnline today, she said he left her care after becoming violent.
The foster mother said: ‘All of this has come as such a shock to me. I wasn’t aware of any of his background before he came to the UK.
Read More: ‘I was told he was 14 and had to accept it’
