Two men have been found guilty of plotting a series of arson attacks on property linked to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. The attacks, which took place last May, included setting fire to a Toyota Rav4 once owned by Starmer in Kentish Town, north London, and two houses, one of which was occupied by the Prime Minister's sister-in-law and her family.
Details of the Plot
The Old Bailey heard that the attacks posed a serious threat to life as they occurred in the middle of the night while people were asleep. Ukrainian Roman Lavrynovych, 22, and Romanian Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, were found guilty of plotting to damage property after a jury deliberated for seven-and-a-half hours. Co-defendant Petro Pochynok, 35, was cleared of the same charge.
Role of the Defendants
The court heard that Pochynok was recruited by Carpiuc to assist Lavrynovych with the first fire. Pochynok, a construction worker and Harrods delivery driver from Islington, claimed he did not know about the car arson plan until it was too late. He said he thought Lavrynovych wanted help with heavy suitcases and ran away when handed a camera phone to film the attack. Jurors were shown a video of Lavrynovych throwing a lit match onto accelerant on a doorstep.
Arrests and Charges
Lavrynovych, of Sydenham, south London, was charged on May 15 last year. Two days later, Carpiuc was stopped at Luton Airport as he waited for a flight to Romania. Police arrested the defendants within a week of the attacks, which were ordered by a shadowy Telegram contact known as El Money.
Motivation and Mystery Handler
Lavrynovych admitted setting fire to the property but claimed he was threatened by El Money, who offered £3,000 in cryptocurrency for the blazes to be filmed and reported in the news. The true identity of El Money remains unknown, but Lavrynovych described him as 'powerful' with political connections. Previously, El Money had tasked Lavrynovych with painting racist graffiti on an Islamic community centre and distributing anti-Muslim fliers.
Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, stated there was no evidence of an ideological motivation. 'The intentions of the defendants were clearly to take payment and carry out a crime for money,' she said. 'There was no evidence to suggest they knew they were targeting the Prime Minister or his properties.'
