Two men convicted over arson attacks on Starmer-linked properties

Two men were convicted at the Old Bailey over a five-day arson campaign that struck properties and a vehicle linked to Keir Starmer, a rare attack on a serving British prime minister’s personal and former homes. Prosecutors said the case was not being treated as terrorism, even though Counter Terrorism Command initially led the investigation because of the links to the prime minister.

The fires took place in May 2025 across north London. A Toyota RAV4 once owned by Starmer was set alight in Kentish Town in the early hours of 8 May. Three days later, on 11 May, a fire was started at the door of a flat in Islington where Starmer had previously lived. On 12 May, his constituency home was attacked. Nobody was injured in any of the blazes, but the damage reached a car, an apartment building and a house tied to the prime minister’s personal history.

Jurors found Ukrainian national Roman Lavrynovych, 22, and Ukrainian-born Romanian national Stanislav Carpiuc, 27, guilty of conspiracy to damage property by fire. Lavrynovych was also convicted of two counts of arson with intent to endanger life or recklessly endangering life. A third defendant, Petro Pochynok, 35, was acquitted. Prosecutor Sarah Przybylska said the Crown was not presenting the case as connected to terrorism or national security, despite the sensitivity of the targets.

The court heard that the attacks were allegedly ordered through Telegram by a Russian-speaking contact known as “El Money,” who offered Lavrynovych £3,000 in cryptocurrency and wanted video evidence of the fires posted online. Lavrynovych told the court he needed the money for his father’s medical treatment and said he acted only because he had been threatened. That account placed the case at the intersection of criminal coercion, online tasking and the vulnerability of public figures whose private addresses can become political targets.

Starmer condemned the attacks in May 2025 as “an attack on all of us, on democracy and the values that we stand for.” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called them “completely unacceptable.” Judith Alexander, Starmer’s sister-in-law, told the court she heard bangs and saw smoke while her partner and daughter were sleeping in one of the affected properties. The verdicts leave Britain with a stark reminder that intimidation aimed at a prime minister’s home life can quickly become a test of public security and democratic resilience.