Two men jailed for arson attacks on property linked to Keir Starmer

Roman Lavrynovych and Stanislav Carpiuc have been jailed at the Old Bailey for seven and two years respectively for arson attacks on property connected to Keir Starmer . Lavrynovych, 22, from Ukraine, and Carpiuc, 27, from Romania were found guilty on Monday of conspiring to commit arson on a car and two properties linked to the prime minister. During the trial, the jury heard that an anonymous Russian-speaking figure named El Money had recruited Lavrynovych and Carpiuc on Telegram. The contact offered Lavrynovych payment to set the fires, record them and get them on the news. On Monday, Lavrynovych was also convicted of damaging two properties by fire, being reckless as to whether life was endangered. Another Ukrainian man, Petro Pochynok, 35, was acquitted. On 8 May 2025, a Toyota Rav4, once owned by Starmer, was set ablaze. A second fire was set on 11 May, at the front door of a property in north London that Starmer had previously managed. In the early hours of 12 May, a fire broke out at Starmer’s former home in Kentish Town, where his sister-in-law and her family were then living. In a televised sentencing at the Old Bailey, Mr Justice Garnham directed most of his remarks at Lavrynovych. “You agreed to carry out this mindless piece of arson for money. You were not a man of great principle and you were easily bought,” he said. He rejected Lavrynovych’s claim that he had not known the houses he set on fire were occupied. …