Two men have been sentenced at the Central Criminal Court over a conspiracy to commit arson at a series of properties linked to the United Kingdom's Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer. The sentencing follows their earlier conviction and brings the high profile prosecution to its conclusion. The judge set out the prison terms for each man in turn, reflecting the differing roles they had played in the plot.
The main defendant, named in court as Roman Lavrynovych, was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment on the first count, with concurrent terms of four years on two further counts. The judge told him that the overall result was that he would go to prison for seven years, serving up to four years and eight months in custody before being released to serve the remainder of the term on licence.
The second man convicted of the conspiracy was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, of which he will serve up to one year in custody before release on licence. The court heard that the agreement, involving him, Lavrynovych and a contact known only by the alias EL, was to set fire to a Toyota RAV car parked in Countess Road and then to start fires at two residential addresses.
The judge described the case as one of recklessness as to whether life was endangered, rather than an intention to endanger life, and placed the culpability in a middle category. Family members were living at the properties at the time of the fires, which were treated as serious offences even though they had not, in the end, proved to be extensive.
During the case the court heard that Lavrynovych had been directed online by a Russian speaker who used the alias EL. According to the evidence, that person supplied the addresses of the targets, set out what should be set alight and offered payment in return. No information was presented about who the Russian speaker actually was, and that question was treated as falling outside what the court had to decide.
In setting out the mitigation, the judge noted that the second man had told police, when interviewed at Luton Airport, that he had made a mistake. He had not sought financial reward and was never promised more than 100 pounds, and his involvement was said to have been prompted in part by a wish to help Lavrynovych raise money for his father's medical treatment. He had also been well regarded by his employer.
The sentences close a case that had drawn attention to the security around homes connected to the Prime Minister and to how the men came to be drawn into the plot. The proceedings left unresolved the wider question of who ultimately directed the attacks from abroad, with the focus of the court remaining on the actions of the defendants themselves rather than the identity of the person who had instructed them.