Pavlo Lapshyn

This name uses Eastern Slavic naming customs; the patronymic is Sergiyovich and the family name is Lapshyn.

Pavlo Lapshyn
File:Pavlo Lapshyn.jpg Mugshot of Lapshyn after his arrest
Born	Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine
Nationality	Ukrainian
Occupation	Post-graduate engineering student
Criminal penalty	Life, with a minimum of 40 years
Motive	Racism
Killings
Date	29 April to 12 July 2013
Location(s)	Small Heath, Birmingham Walsall Wolverhampton Tipton
Target(s)	Non-whites
Killed	1 (Mohammed Saleem)
Injured	0
Weapons	Dagger, home-made explosives
Date apprehended	18 July 2013

Pavlo Serhiyovych Lapshyn (Ukrainian Cyrillic: Павло Сергійович Лапшин) is a Ukrainian far-right terrorist who is sentenced in the United Kingdom to a life sentence with a minimum of 40 years for a murder in Birmingham and for three attempted bombings of mosques, all in the West Midlands in 2013. He confessed to police that his motivation was to kill non-whites.

Background

Lapshyn was on work experience at Delcam in Birmingham when he committed his attacks.

Pavlo Lapshyn is the son of Sergey Lapshyn, a university lecturer, and is from Dnipropetrovsk. Lapshyn's father claimed his son is not a racist, and said Pavlo knew his grandmother was a member of the (largely Muslim) Tatar community.

Lapshyn studied engineering at the National Metallurgical Academy of Ukraine in his home city. In 2009, he earned a BA with honours, and completed a Master's degree the following year. He then began to pursue a doctorate. In August 2010, Lapshyn was arrested after inadvertently causing an explosion in his family's apartment. Lapshyn had been experimenting with bomb-making chemicals while his family was on vacation. The explosion blew him across the room and caused severe damage to the apartment. Lapshyn told investigators he had been trying to make fireworks, and was fined over the incident.

During his doctoral studies, Lapsyhn entered a competition to exchange to Coventry University and partake in work experience at Delcam, a software company based in the Birmingham neighbourhood of Small Heath. He was accepted after coming in third place for his work on 3D modelling and computer programming. Lapshyn arrived in Birmingham on 24 April 2013 and stayed in a flat in the business park where Delcam's headquarters are located. Colleagues described him as shy, yet polite.

Attacks

Murder of Mohammed Saleem

On 29 April 2013, five days after his arrival in the United Kingdom, at around 10 pm, Lapshyn stabbed 82-year-old Mohammed Saleem to death as the pensioner returned from Green Lane Mosque in Small Heath. Saleem had been walking alone near his Small Heath home when he was spotted by Lapshyn, who was carrying a knife. Lapshyn later told detectives that he decided to kill Saleem because he "was a Muslim and there were no witnesses." Lapshyn stabbed Saleem three times in the back.

The local vox populi was that Saleem had been murdered by a member of the anti-Islamist street protest movement the English Defence League (EDL), after six Muslims had been convicted for attempting to bomb one of their rallies. Shazia Khan, a daughter of Saleem, claimed that her brother had received increasingly threatening letters purporting to be from the EDL; one of them stated: "One letter said: "It has come to our attention that you are training terrorists at your premises. We will not tolerate any terrorist activities on our soil. We urge you to close this gym as soon as possible." The letters were said to date from September 2012, before Lapshyn's arrival.

Due to post-mortem investigations, Saleem was not given a funeral until 13 July. Approximately 5,000 attended the service at his mosque.

Bombing attempts

Lapshyn attempted three bombings on local mosques, targeting Friday lunchtimes, which are the best-attended services. The first was laid outside a mosque in Walsall on 21 June, and police investigations led to 40 homes being evacuated. The second was laid outside Wolverhampton Central Mosque on 28 June but not reported until after the other two. The third bombing took place in Tipton on 12 July.

Arrest and trial

Lapshyn was tried at the Old Bailey in London

On 18 July, Lapshyn was arrested and questioned over the explosions and the murder of Saleem.

For the explosions, he was charged under section 2 of the Explosive Substances Act 1883 and section 5(1) of the Terrorism Act 2006. He pleaded guilty to all charges on 21 October 2013.

Lapshyn was sentenced at the Old Bailey in London on 25 October 2013. The court was cordoned off after a suspicious device was found. Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, said that police searches of Lapshyn's flat had found photographs of him posing with the dagger with which he had killed Saleem, as well as white supremacist literature and video games. He argued for a whole-life tariff. However, Lapshyn was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum tariff of 40 years.

After the sentence, Hanif Khan, a son-in-law of Saleem, stated "We're in the hands of the judge – 40 years is still a long time and he’ll be 65 when he gets out. We’ve lost a beloved person. Hopefully now we can get some closure".