Peter Wallace is haunted by the last moments of his beloved stepson’s life.
Peter wasn’t there, outside a branch of the sandwich chain Subway on a Bournemouth street, in the small hours of March 12, 2022, to witness the moment 21-year-old Tom Roberts was stabbed in the chest by Afghan migrant Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai.
But Peter, who welcomed Tom into his life as a one-year-old when he met and fell in love with the boy’s mother Dolores, has seen the CCTV footage. It is seared in his memory.
He can recall each agonising second of watching Tom, who aspired to become a Royal Marine, intervene in a heated row between his own friend and Abdurahimzai over an e-scooter.
‘I watched the CCTV of his last moments and the last thing he did was put his arms out between the killer – I can’t bear to say his name – and his friend,’ says Peter.
‘The fact that Tommy had both his arms stretched out meant that he wasn’t protecting his body, and the killer straight away reached into his trousers, pulled out a knife and stabbed him.’
Two years have passed, and the grief Peter feels is ever-present and has only been compounded by all that has happened since.
For in the devastating aftermath of Tom’s murder, it emerged that this was no simple case of wrong person, in the wrong place at the wrong time.
When he had slipped off a cross-channel ferry into the country, in 2019, Abdulrahimzai had told Border Force officers he was a 14-year-old orphan, fleeing the Taliban.
The truth, however, was very different; in reality he was 19 and had already killed twice before that night, gunning down two fellow Afghan migrants with a Kalashnikov rifle in Serbia in 2018 where he worked as a people smuggler, while zig-zagging his way around Europe.
The numerous failures that left an adult killer free to walk the streets, masquerading as a child, then the catalogue of missed opportunities to spot the red flags that could have served as a warning of the dangers to come were laid bare in the wake of the tragedy.
Blunder upon blunder that heaped agony on Tom’s grieving family, who, after Abdulrahimzai’s conviction for murder in January last year, accused the Border Force and Home Office of systematic failures which allowed Abdulrahimzai into the country.
They had hoped that a full inquest into his death would lead to some accountability from the authorities.
But last week, those hopes were dealt another crashing blow when, after a number of pre-inquest review hearings, senior coroner for Dorset Rachael Griffin ruled there was no need for a full inquest to take place.
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.
She said Tom 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 for Peter, the catalogue of mistakes and missed opportunities is as damning as the senseless crime that robbed him of the boy he loved and raised.
‘The killer didn’t just take Tommy’s life – he destroyed my whole family,’ he says, sadly.
Peter and Tom’s mother Dolores started a relationship in 2001 and married six years later; Peter helping to raise not only Tom, but his elder sisters Patti and Erika. The couple went on to have a son together, William, who is 14.
But Peter reveals that he and Dolores separated after nearly 25 years together last March. Why?
‘The strain of trying to be a normal family became too much and we parted ways,’ he says. ‘It’s devastated me because we were so happy before this happened.
‘I have a cherished memory of myself and Dolores sipping tea in bed on a Sunday, surrounded by Tommy and the other kids playing by our side. It was a really wholesome and lovely experience. But it’s all gone now. Only William has kept me going.’
Peter speaks with pride of the boy who he taught to ride a bike and who grew into a strapping young man, albeit one who remained a gentle soul.
‘Tommy did not have an aggressive bone in his body,’ he says. ‘In fact, I don’t think he ever had a fight in his life.
‘He didn’t really go out too much either, he was very homely. He and his friends were really keen on keeping fit and healthy.
‘For the last two years, Tommy had been training at a boxing gym in Christchurch. He never liked hurting anybody so would mainly work-out, train on the punchbags and spar.
‘I was pleased because he was somebody who wouldn’t say boo to a goose and I wanted him to learn how to look after himself because I know how the world can be.
‘He’d built up an impressive physique and was proud of how big his arms were and how toned he was. He was in really good physical shape.
‘This is the thing that bothers me, he could have overpowered his attacker had he wanted to or had the chance to, but he didn’t have that aggression in him.
‘We always told him, ‘walk away and live another day’ and so he was never one who’d go out looking for fights. He was the gentlest kid you could ever meet.’
On the night violence erupted into his life, Tom, a part-time DJ, had been out with two friends and was looking for a cab home when, in the kind of innocuous scene that unfolds on many a city street after a night out, one of his friends picked up an e-scooter from the ground outside a Subway sandwich store and joked they should ride it home.
An enraged Abdulrahimzai stormed over and confronted them. Tom initially walked away, but returned when the argument grew more intense.
He carefully placed his hand out to suggest they were of no threat but when the Afghani squared up to him he slapped him away in self-defence. At this point, Abdulrahimzai produced a 10-inch, gold-handled knife from the waistband of his trousers and stabbed Tom, twice.
Recalling the moment the family were told, Peter says: ‘It was five or six o’clock in the morning and we got a call from Poole Hospital to say that Tommy had been stabbed and that it was very serious and could we come down.
‘We got there as fast as we could but when we got there, he’d already gone.
‘He’d died at the scene, the medics had managed to revive him enough to be taken to hospital but they couldn’t save him.
‘The worst thing was not being allowed to see him. The police needed to keep his body in the mortuary for forensic purposes.
‘We couldn’t hug him one last time and say goodbye. All we had was a bag of his possessions.’
First came the heartache, then, as an investigation unfolded, the revelations.
It transpired that Abdulrahimzai had arrived in the UK on December 26, 2019, hidden in a vehicle on a ferry from Cherbourg and told Border Force officials he was 14, but no age assessment was carried out.
Astonishingly, he was placed into two secondary schools in Bournemouth after claiming to have escaped Afghanistan, where the Taliban had killed both his parents.
Concerns over Abdulrahimzai’s real identity and age were raised on several occasions – including by his foster carer. His fingerprints were taken a few weeks after arriving in the UK and revealed he had links with Norway and Italy.
The prints 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.
Neither were Abdulrahimzai’s fingerprints shared with Interpol either, not until after Tom’s death, when a search revealed that in September 2022 he had been convicted of shooting two men dead in Serbia.
Alarm bells might have rung so many times: when he was expelled from one school for carrying a knife on the premises, when he was removed from care after threatening his foster mother, or when two days before he killed Tom he was stopped by police for carrying a machete.
He was, as Tom’s family put it, ‘a loaded canon’, one that just happened to point at Tom.
There had been so much promise to the life Tom was building.
Ambitious, he’d recently completed an engineering apprenticeship and had submitted an application to join the Royal Marines.
Peter recalls fondly how his stepson excelled at design and technology as a student at St Peter’s School in Bournemouth and then at Highcliffe School.
‘He moved to Highcliffe and had planned to do A-levels there until he secured a two-year apprenticeship with a local engineering firm,’ he says. ‘I think he was a little bored of what he was doing to be honest, he was hands-on and liked a challenge and so wanted to continue with engineering but with the Royal Marines.
‘His father has a military background and Tommy was physically very fit. He signed up and sent off the application a month before he was murdered. We never heard back so will never know if he would’ve been successful.
‘Tommy had his whole life in front of him. He was smitten with his girlfriend, Gemma. He told his mother and myself that he was really keen on her. He hadn’t bought an engagement ring or anything like that; but I don’t think a proposal was too far away. He’d talked about it.’
Instead of new memories, Peter is left with the old ones of the boy he cherished as if her were his own.
‘Tommy was a great kid,’ he says. ‘I taught him to ride a bike and we’d often go out together in the kayak – off places like Lymington and Beaulieu – and he absolutely loved being part of Sea Scouts. He just loved the water.
‘He also played rugby for a time when he was about ten. But it was just to keep me happy really because I loved rugby. Tommy was never that keen on playing because he didn’t like the thought of getting hurt or, worse, hurting an opposition player.
‘When he first started playing, he’d chuck the ball away on purpose but gradually he learned how to pass and tackle.’
Peter has had to hold on to those memories in the dark days since Tom’s murder.
‘I fell into a pit of despair when Tommy died,’ he admits. ‘I didn’t know what to do.
‘I lost my stepson and then my wife and had to walk away from work because I was becoming too aggressive.
‘My background is in physiotherapy but most recently I was working for a company selling medical supplies and on a few occasions I got into arguments with customers.
‘I was warned about my conduct and I knew I had to step back before things became even worse.
‘People say that time is a great healer but two and half years on and the pain is just as intense – perhaps even more so as I’ve lost everything.
‘I’m undergoing counselling but I’m not the same man I was. I watched Tommy’s last moments played in court. I didn’t want to, but I needed to know what happened.
‘I watched that man pull out a knife and stab the boy that I’d taught to ride a bike, took kayaking and surfing. The blow caused him to stumble towards some bins and fall down on the floor never to get up.
‘That would change anyone. It’s all about learning to cope with what’s happened because you never get over it.’
As for his son’s killer, he says: ‘There were so many warning signs that Abdulrahimzai should not be here yet the Home Office did nothing about it.
‘It feels like everything is being swept under the carpet and it is a big cover-up.’
At the time of the inquest ruling, 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.’
The Home Office has been contacted for further comment.
Bloodstained journey of Afghan double murderer who shot two people dead with an AK-47 in Serbia but was allowed to claim asylum in the UK before killing again
He was the drug dealing double murderer whose violent past eluded the Home Office and Border Force agents when he claimed asylum on Boxing Day 2019.
But barely two years after arriving in Poole, Dorset – having duped officials into thinking he was a 14-year-old boy – ‘knife obsessed’ Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai added a third victim to his body count, murdering innocent Thomas Roberts in cold blood.
The 21-year-old Afghan national stabbed the aspiring Royal Marine to death during an argument over an e-scooter in Bournemouth town centre in March last year.
And on Monday, Abdulrahimzai was found guilty of murder following a trial at Salisbury Crown Court – where his bloodstained journey from Afghanistan to Bournemouth was finally unveiled.
In a stunning revelation, the court heard how Abdulrahimzai had been handed a 20-year prison sentence in his absence for ruthlessly slaughtering two fellow Afghans in Serbia, gunning them both down with an AK-47 assault rifle in 2018.
Earlier, the court heard how as a 15-year-old child, Abdulrahimzai had been tortured and left for dead by the Taliban – who had previously executed both his parents when he was just four or five.
Now Abdulrahimzai’s journey can be revealed.
October 2001: Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai claimed, like many Afghan children, not to know his date of birth. But a court later determined that he was born around this time – just weeks after Al-Qaeda boss Osama bin Laden masterminded the 9/11 terror attacks in America.
Abdulrahimzai said he was four or five years old when his parents were killed by the Taliban in the Laghman province in the east of the country.
Oct 2015: Having been tortured by the Taliban and left for dead at the side of the road, Abdulrahimzai is smuggled out of Afghanistan through Pakistan by a man described as his ‘uncle’. He has his fingerprints taken in Serbia, and then a few weeks later in Norway.
Jul 2016: Abdulrahimzai, using one of his many fake names, has his fingerprints taken in the northeastern port city of Trieste, Italy.
Feb 2017: He is convicted of two drug offences in Italy and handed a suspended sentence.
Jun 2017: Abdulrahimzai is back in Serbia.
Jul 31 to Aug 1, 2018: Abdulrahimzai guns down two fellow Afghans with an assault rifle at a shed near a motorway in Dobrinci in an apparent argument about people smuggling. He flees in a taxi. He is declared a wanted man by Serbian authorities.
Oct 2018: Abdulrahimzai is back in Norway.
Nov 2019: He applies for asylum in Norway, but is refused.
Dec 26 2019: Weeks later, Abdulrahimzai travels as an unaccompanied passenger on a Brittany Ferries service from Cherbourg in France to Poole in Dorset. Upon arrival, he tells officials he is 14, when in reality he is thought to be around 19 years old.
Jan 2, 2020: He is placed into the foster care of Nicola Marchant-Jones, an experienced foster carer in Bournemouth. Adbulrahimzai, who is initially unable to speak English, later begins attending school locally – where the depraved killer went on to ‘terrify’ young girls, sending them indecent selfies, and beating up young boys.
Nov 2020: Abdulrahimzai goes on trial, in his absence, in Serbia for the double-murder. He is convicted and sentenced to 20 years in jail.
Dec 2020: Ms Marchant-Jones raises the alarm with social services, who contact police, after she spots Abdulrahimzai with a knife during a shopping trip. He is spoken to, but not arrested.
2021: Home Office’s Prevent anti-terrorism task group was told Abdulrahimzai was ‘susceptible to terrorism’ in 2021.
Aug 2021: Abdulrahimzai has an argument with his foster mother and leaves the home. He is later placed with another family.
Mar 10, 2022: Dorset Police receive a report that he is carrying a knife. No weapon is found, however, and no arrests are made.
Mar 12, 2022: Abdulrahimzai headbutts a man during a row outside a nightclub in Bournemouth. Moments later, he gets into an argument with 24-year-old James Medway over an e-scooter. Thomas Roberts, 21, acts as ‘peacekeeper’ but is then stabbed twice by Abdulrahimzai. The incident lasts less than half a minute. The killer escapes on foot. Aspiring Royal Marine Mr Roberts dies later in hospital.
Mar 13, 2022: Abdulrahimzai is arrested after accidentally leaving his phone at the scene. He tells officers he is 16 years old.
Jan 23, 2023: Abdulrahimzai, determined by a court to be 21, is convicted of murdering Mr Roberts and jailed for a minimum term of 29 years.
January 2024: Senior coroner Rachael Griffin rules at a pre-inquest review hearing that Tom’s death was not related to a terrorist incident or terrorist activity and Home Office Prevent reviews are not relevant to this inquest.
September 2024: Senior coroner rules there is no need for a full inquest looking at Home Office failings to take place.