A MAN who was found guilty of murdering an aspiring Royal Marine in Bournemouth will spend at least 29 years behind bars.
Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai received a life sentence from Judge Paul Dugdale for the murder of 21-year-old Tom Roberts outside Subway in Old Christchurch Road.
Abdulrahimzai, 21, was told his “momentary act of extreme senseless violence has left a family with a tragic loss that they will feel for the rest of their lives”.
Judge Dugdale said: "Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, on March 12, 2022, you murdered Thomas Roberts, a man you had never met.
"You spent 26 seconds of your life with him at the end of which you stabbed him fatally twice to the chest with a large knife which you routinely carried with you.
"You started the conflict, and throughout you were the threatening aggressor.
"In seconds you took the life of a thoroughly decent young man. A man with a bright future who was loved greatly by so many people.”
Afghan asylum seeker Abdulrahimzai was found guilty of murder following an 11-day trial at Salisbury Crown Court.
Following his conviction by a majority verdict on Monday, the court heard it had come to light during the police investigation that he had been convicted of murdering two people in Serbia.
Those killings related to Abdulrahimzai shooting two people with a Kalashnikov during an incident on the night of July 31, 2018.
The judge said this killing appeared it was “in some way connected to the people trafficking business”.
Mr Roberts was murdered after an altercation broke out between his friend James Medway and the defendant over an e-scooter in the early hours on March 12 last year.
The complainant had stepped between the two men and acted as the “peacemaker”.
Mr Roberts “open-palm” slapped the defendant, which the judge said could not be viewed by the defendant as a significant threat.
Abdulrahimzai responded by pulling a knife from his waistband before stabbing Mr Roberts and fleeing the scene.
Judge Dugdale said the defendant inflicted two deep and fatal injuries to the complainant in an act of “extreme violence”.
The attack was not pre-mediated but Abdulrahimzai went out armed with a knife, prepared to use it and actively seeking out conflict, the judge said.
Judge Dugdale accepted that the defendant had an intention to cause really serious harm and not to kill.
The judge said: "Thomas did nothing wrong that night at all. He was simply very unlucky to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and to meet Mr Abdulrahimzai."
In his sentencing remarks, the judge said past experiences in the defendant’s life, including growing up in war-torn Afghanistan, had left him “very damaged” but it was to blame for the stabbing.
Judge Dugdale said the defendant created the situation that led to Mr Roberts’s death.
After the defendant was sent down, the judge thanked members of Mr Roberts’s family for their statements and attendance in court.
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