Bournemouth e-scooter row: Man guilty of 'peacemaker' murder

Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai was previously convicted of murdering two people in Serbia

A man has been found guilty of murdering a stranger trying to act as a "peacemaker" in an argument over an e-scooter.

Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai admitted stabbing Tom Roberts, 21, in Bournemouth in March 2022, but denied intending to cause him serious harm.

After its verdict, the jury was told the defendant murdered two people with a Kalashnikov rifle in Serbia in 2018.

Abdulrahimzai, of Poole, will be sentenced on Wednesday.

Judge Peter Dugdale said jurors had not previously been told about the Serbia killings because of the "real risk it might have prejudiced your judgement".

Salisbury Crown Court heard Abdulrahimzai, an Afghan asylum seeker, went to a shed on 31 July 2018 where the victims, also from Afghanistan, had been sleeping.

Tom Roberts was stabbed to death in an argument over an e-scooter

He fired 18 rounds from the automatic firearm following an argument "possibly in some way linked to the business of people-trafficking", the judge said.

Previously, the Salisbury jury heard Mr Roberts, from Bournemouth, was killed when he tried to act as a "peacemaker" in a dispute over an e-scooter in Old Christchurch Road on 12 March.

He was stabbed twice after he slapped and possibly also punched Abdulrahimzai in the face, the court heard.

The defendant told the court he fled Afghanistan after the Taliban killed his parents and left him for dead.

He said the group had "people everywhere" and he feared Mr Roberts was one of the "people who are trying to kill me".

Police cordoned off part of Old Christchurch Road and Horseshoe Common following the stabbing

Giving evidence, consultant forensic psychiatrist Dr Gauruv Malhan said the defendant had a history consistent with borderline personality disorder.

Abdulrahimzai, who lived in Poole at the time of the offence, arrived in the UK in December 2019, and told the authorities he was 16 when he was arrested, but the court has since determined that he is now 21.

He first went to Serbia through Pakistan and Iran in October 2015, before arriving in Norway later that month with a close friend. Abdulrahimzai then left Norway and spent some time in Italy and Serbia.

He applied for asylum in Norway, but when his application was refused in December 2019, he left out of fear of being deported back to Afghanistan and arrived in the UK in Poole, Dorset, in the same month.

Following the verdict, the Crown Prosecution Service said Abdulrahimzai was a "violent and dangerous man".

Prosecutor Kate Lewis said he "killed Thomas Roberts, a young man with his whole life ahead of him, in what was a completely senseless and vicious act".

Det Ch Insp Simon Huxter, of Dorset Police, said: "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."

Mr Roberts' family said the part-time DJ was a "bright young man with a sense of humour... who had enjoyed life".

"The family... cannot describe the loss of their son, brother, partner, friend in the tragic circumstances of his violent and unnecessary death," their statement added.