Third man arrested over Starmer firebombs

Telegraph

19-05-2025

A third man has been arrested in connection with the alleged arson attacks targeting Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister.
Scotland Yard arrested a 34-year-old man on Monday in Chelsea on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life.
The man was taken into custody after an investigation led by counter-terror police from the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit.
He is the third suspect to be arrested in connection with the suspected firebomb attacks between May 8 and 12 against two properties and a car linked to Sir Keir.
The first incident occurred in the early hours of Thursday morning last week. A Toyota Rav 4 which used to belong to Sir Keir but had been sold to a neighbour following the general election was damaged by fire.
Two days later, a flat in Islington that Sir Keir used to own in the 1990s was allegedly targeted.
Then, in the early hours of Monday morning, the Prime Minister's family home in Tufnell Park, which is rented out to his sister-in-law, was set alight.
While nobody was hurt at the property, the front door and entrance area were damaged.
Counter-terror police began investigating a number of potential motives, including whether a hostile state was behind the attacks.
First and second arrests
A 26-year-old man was arrested around 1.45pm on Saturday at Luton Airport on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life.
Separately, Roman Lavrynovych, 21, of Sydenham, south London, was arrested, charged and appeared in court earlier this week in connection with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life.
Mr Lavrynovych was remanded in custody after a hearing at Westminster magistrates' court.
The court was told he lived with his grandmother and was asleep at their property when police raided it in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Sir Keir told MPs that attacks against politicians were an attack on democracy.
'He really liked the UK'
Mr Lavrynovych's father said that his son was a proud Ukrainian but had always admired the UK.
Mykola Lavrynovych, 48, added: 'Roman came to London for the first time when he was 10 years old. He spent a year, as his mother was working there.
'He went to a British school and studied there for one year. When the invasion started, he left Ukraine for Germany, but after a year he moved to London, which he really liked and wanted to stay there.'
His father went on: 'He has an uncle who is fighting on the front line against the Russians and he is 100 per cent pro-Ukrainian. He has never spoken Russian and doesn't allow his sister and brother or anybody else even to listen to Russian music.'
Roman Lavrynovych was initially living with his mother and younger siblings but when his sister was unable to get a school place in London, she returned to Ukraine and he remained, living with his grandmother.
He set up a building company but had also signed with a modelling agency and was a regular at a gym in Sydenham, south London.
Photographs of Mr Lavrynovych on social media show him doing press-ups in his bedroom.
His father said Mr Lavyronvych had been happy and settled in the UK and had a girlfriend who was also Ukrainian. He added that he had spoken to him on the telephone just hours before his arrest in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
Appearing before magistrates in Westminster on Friday morning, he spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth via a Ukrainian interpreter, with his lawyer saying his English was 'very limited'.