LONDON (Reuters) -A Ukrainian man appeared in a London court on Friday to face charges of arson following a counter-terrorism investigation into a series of fires all linked to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Roman Lavrynovych, 21, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ court accused of three counts of arson with intent to endanger life over the three fires which took place this month.
He spoke through an interpreter to confirm his name and address in south London and he was remanded in custody until his next hearing at London’s Old Bailey court on June 6.
British police were called to a blaze early on Monday at the property in Kentish Town, north London — the constituency Starmer represents. No one was injured, but the entrance to the home was damaged.
Lavrynovych was arrested the following day in connection with that fire and two further incidents – a fire at the entrance to an apartment block in nearby Islington on Sunday and a fire involving a car, a Toyota RAV4, in Kentish Town on Thursday.
Before moving into the prime minister’s official residence at No. 10 Downing Street, Starmer lived at the Kentish Town address with his wife and two children, while prosecutors said Starmer had previously lived at one of the apartments in Islington.
“The car and both properties were linked to Prime Minister Keir Starmer,” said prosecutor Sarah Przybylska.
She said that in police interviews, Lavrynovych had denied arson. At this stage the motive behind the fires was unexplained, she added.
Lavrynovych’s lawyer, James Scobie, said his client needed to be “educationally” assessed.
He added, without elaborating, that the issues in the case were likely to be narrow ones.
Describing the incident in parliament on Wednesday, Starmer called it “an attack on all of us, on our democracy and the values we stand for.”
(Reporting by Michael Holden, writing by Sam Tabahriti; editing by William James, William Maclean)
