Muslim-Hating Racist Ukrainian Student Pavlo Lapshyn Jailed For Life

'You Have No Place Whatsoever In Our Multi-Faith And Multi-Cultural Society'
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A man with a hatred of "non-whites" has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 40 years.

The court heard today that Ukrainian student Pavlo Lapshyn, 25, has "no place whatsoever in our multi-faith and multi-cultural society," after he murdered a Muslim pensioner within five days of entering the UK and planted bombs near three mosques.

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Lapshyn had arrived in the UK days earlier

The self-confessed racist had only just arrived in the country after winning a work placement competition when he killed frail 82-year-old Mohammed Saleem, who walked with a stick, as he walked home from a mosque in Birmingham in April.

Lapshyn, 25, a postgraduate student from Dnipropetrovsk, in Ukraine, appeared at the Old Bailey on Monday and pleaded guilty to the murder.

He also admitted causing an explosion on July 12 near the Kanzal Iman mosque in Tipton, and engaging in conduct in preparation of terrorist acts between April 24 and July 18 this year.

This included planting bombs near mosques in Walsall and Wolverhampton, researching locations to plant bombs and buying chemicals on the internet to make explosives.

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Mr Saleem was returning home from evening prayers

The Ukrainian was in the UK on a sponsored work placement at a software firm in the Small Heath area of Birmingham when he was arrested on suspicion of Mr Saleem's murder nearby on July 20.

The pensioner and father of seven was stabbed three times yards from his house as he walked home alone after worship, on April 29, prompting an outpouring of grief from the community.

While Lapshyn remained at large, he plotted the planting of devices near three mosques as part of a campaign he said was motivated by racial hatred.

It was only because Lapshyn got the wrong time for Friday prayers that the blast did not cause mass injuries.

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Nails recovered from near the scene of one of the explosions

Passing sentence today, Mr Justice Sweeney told him: "You clearly hold extremist right wing, white supremacist views and you were motivated to commit the offences by religious and racial hatred in the hope that you would ignite racial conflict and cause Muslims to leave the area where you were living.

"Such views, hatred and motivations have no place whatsoever in our multi-faith and multi-cultural society."