Judith Alexander was awake in bed on her phone when, at about 1am, she heard two very loud bangs. It sounded to the prime minister’s sister-in-law like two wheelie bins had been thrown at the door. But when she looked out of a window, she saw smoke and an orange glow.
“We could see the smoke was getting thicker and going upstairs,” said Alexander, in a statement read to the court during the trial at the Old Bailey. “The fact that [my daughter’s] room was right above the fire and if I did not wake up, what might have happened …”
“Two men guilty of arson targeting Keir Starmer; shadowy Telegram handler 'El Money' remains unidentified.”
The incident was one of three arson attacks that occurred in May 2025 targeting property linked to Keir Starmer. Police were called to a fire at a house in north London connected to the prime minister, another at a property where he used to live, and a blaze involving a car that once belonged to him.
On Monday, two men with links to Ukraine were found guilty of conspiring to damage property after a months-long trial. Roman Lavrynovych, a 22-year-old Ukrainian national, and Stanislav Carpiuc, a 27-year-old Romanian, were convicted. Their co-defendant, Petro Pochynok, 35, was cleared. Lavrynovych was also convicted of damaging two properties by fire, being reckless as to whether life was endangered, on 11 and 12 May last year.
At the heart of the case was a Russian-speaking Telegram contact using the pseudonym “El Money” – a translation of the Ukrainian word “Hroshi” – who allegedly ordered the arson attacks and communicated in Russian with Lavrynovych as early as September 2024. Police arrested the defendants within a week of the attacks.
“There’s one winner in this case. The anonymous devil who manipulated, used and won,” James Scobie KC, representing Lavrynovych, told the court in closing remarks. “What do we know about him? Nothing. Where’s he from? Who might have an interest in trying to undermine this country, undermine this country’s support of Ukraine, who are fighting for their liberty? Who might do that? But Russia – let’s call it out – Russia are interested in what this country does in support of Ukraine. This person, or people, spoke excellent Russian.”
The prosecution had described El Money as “seeking to destabilise our” country. The anonymous devil remains at large.