An 18-year-old Afghan man who arrived in the UK on a small boat has gone on trial at the Old Bailey accused of travelling roughly 200 miles from Leeds to London to fatally stab a shop worker near Westminster Abbey. Prosecutors allege Suliaman Tajzai murdered 26-year-old Farmanullah Sherzad on 27 March this year in a planned, targeted attack rather than a chance encounter, chasing him through the Peabody Estate on Abbey Orchard Street before he was found dying with a kitchen knife in his chest.

The court heard Tajzai crossed the Channel by inflatable boat in August 2022, claimed asylum the next day and was granted temporary leave to remain until 2029, having initially told officials he was 14 before the Home Office assigned him a birth date. Prosecutors said he scouted London on three occasions to find where Mr Sherzad lived and worked and bought the murder weapon that morning. The case is linked to an earlier incident in which Tajzai and his cousin, Zakirullah Tarakhail, tied up Mr Sherzad after discovering he had been secretly messaging the cousin's wife; a stalking complaint against Mr Sherzad was later dropped by police. Tajzai denies murder and possession of a knife in a public place.