An Afghan migrant, who was convicted of beheading a woman in the Netherlands, walked unchecked into the UK where he went on to brutally attack two police officers with a claw hammer.

Jamshid Piruz’s lawyer defended his actions by insisting the “offence was committed at a time of stress for my client” as he “was in a foreign country” and was “very confused by the vehicles driving on a different side of the road,” reports to the Daily Mail.

He had been sentenced to 12 years in jail for slaughtering a female tenant in the Netherlands in 2006. The judge rejected his insanity plea, and court documents said he was “inspired by Taliban movies” and had acted “intentionally and with premeditation”.

However, no alarm was raised when he entered the UK because Mr. Piruz was a permanent resident of the Netherlands and could take advantage of European Union (EU) open borders.

Furthermore, under EU rules, other member states have no compulsion to inform the UK about convicts and dangerous persons who could enter the country, and some nations do not even keep such records.

When inside the UK, the unemployed 34-year-old began his crime spree within days by assaulting a member of staff at Gatwick Airport. Yet, he was back on the streets days later after being released by local magistrates.

He then, on January 7 2016 attacked two police officers with a claw hammer, hospitalising one with head injuries.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Tory MP Henry Smith, who represents Crawley, said: “The country has got to have tougher border controls. Clearly, being a member of the EU did not protect us on this occasion.

“A very dangerous individual was allowed to travel here without us having prior knowledge that he’d committed murder in the Netherlands.

“It is staggering that someone could assault staff at Gatwick and then a couple of days later attack two police officers. Why was the information that he was a violent offender not available to us from our EU partners?

“This is an appalling example of the kind of people who are getting into the country undetected.” The migrant criminal will be sentenced on Friday.