CALLS for an investigation into how the murderer of a Bournemouth man entered the UK without challenge have been backed by the county’s Police and Crime Commissioner.

David Sidwick told the police and crime panel that he had heard from concerned parents that the murderer of Tom Roberts may have been taught alongside their children.

Lawangeen Abdulrahimzai, 21, was found guilty of murdering Mr Roberts in Bournemouth town centre in the early hours on March 12, 2022.

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The Afghan asylum seeker told authorities he was 14 when he arrived in the UK when he was in fact 18.

Following the majority verdict at Salisbury Crown Court on January 23, it was heard Abdulrahimzai had been convicted of murdering two people with a rifle in Serbia in 2018.

After arriving at the Port of Poole on Boxing Day 2019, the defendant was looked after by a foster parent and placed in local schools.

Abdulrahimzai received a life sentence with a minimum term of 29 years' imprisonment for the murder of 21-year-old Mr Roberts at a hearing on January 25.

Speaking to the panel at a meeting on Thursday, February 2, Mr Sidwick said: “There are no words that I can say that will take away the unbearable pain which Tom Roberts’s family and parents will be suffering. A life full of potential, cruelly snuffed out through no fault of his own.

"I would like to commend the work of the major crime investigation team and Chief Inspector Simon Huxter who led the investigation and rapidly brought the murderer to justice. The life sentence will help assuage the anguish to some extent but it cannot ever replace a son snatched away.

"There are two fundamental issues here for me of widespread concern – that the individual involved was a fugitive from justice in another country, two murders in Serbia. The question I have is how did the UK not turn him away? Norway managed to.

"The second (concern) is that the individual was able to misrepresent himself as a child.

"I have had parents contacting me concerned that their young daughters would have been taught alongside this man. There are questions to be answered here.

"How can we be sure there are no more felons misrepresenting themselves as children and when will common sense prevail and we re-balance the safety of a community, versus the rights of an individual?

"I am grateful for both the (Bournemouth) MPs for highlighting these issues and endorse their call for a full and wide-ranging investigation. I will be following up on these questions.”