London<\/a>, in 2024, after Starmer moved to Downing Street.<\/p>\nBefore the fire had broken out, she had been lying awake in bed, scrolling on her phone as her partner and daughter slept.<\/p>\n
Alexander called the fire brigade and \u201cfrantically\u201d attempted to call her sister Victoria, Starmer\u2019s wife. Her daughter\u2019s bedroom was near the fire and the girl was woken up by the smoke, the statement said. Alexander gave her family members Covid masks to wear.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could see the smoke was getting thicker and going upstairs,\u201d said Alexander, and described her daughter as \u201creally frightened\u201d and \u201cextremely worried\u201d. Alexander has asthma and struggled to breathe as the house filled with smoke, the court heard.<\/p>\n
It was only after firefighters had attended that the \u201crealisation of what happened really hit me\u201d, she added. \u201cThe fact that [my daughter\u2019s] room was right above the fire and if I did not wake up, what might have happened. I was awake all night.\u201d<\/p>\n
The incident followed two others that occurred in the same month, when police were called to a fire at a house in Islington, north London, connected to Starmer and to a blaze involving a car that also once belonged to the prime minister.<\/p>\n
Lavrynovych faces three counts of arson with intent to endanger life or being reckless as to whether life would be endangered. Pochynok and Carpiuc are also accused of conspiracy to commit arson.<\/p>\n
The court heard the 22-year-old was arrested in south London on 13 May last year. During a search, a petrol can and a bottle of white spirit were seized and were found to have the defendant\u2019s DNA on them.<\/p>\n
In a police interview after his arrest, Lavrynovych denied being involved in the fires and claimed he was at home on the dates of the first two incidents and visiting a friend in Camden on the third, according to the prosecution.<\/p>\n
When asked if someone had asked him to start the fires, Lavrynovych said: \u201cI think you need to speak to a different person.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked who, he replied: \u201cI don\u2019t know, I never saw this person.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked by the officer whether someone asked him to set fire to the three addresses, Lavrynovych allegedly replied \u201cyes\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is alleged the three men with links to Ukraine were offered payment to set fire to a car and two houses linked to Starmer by a Russian-speaking Telegram contact named El Money \u2013 a translation of the Ukrainian word \u201cHroshi\u201d.<\/p>\n
On 8 May, a Toyota RAV4, once owned by Starmer before he sold it to a neighbour, was set ablaze. Another fire took place on 11 May at the front door of a property in Islington, north London, which Starmer had previously managed.<\/p>\n
A third fire was set in the early hours of 12 May outside the Kentish Town home where Starmer lived before he moved into Downing Street, and where his sister-in-law was now living.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the court heard that Telegram messages recovered by the police between Lavrynovych and El Money showed he had been recruited, instructed and promised payment in cryptocurrency for the fires.<\/p>\n
Pochynok had been recruited by Carpiuc to help Lavrynovych with the first fire, while Carpiuc\u2019s role involved planning and receiving payment.<\/p>\n
In a prepared statement, Lavrynovych said El Money had offered him \u00a31,500 to check for CCTV in the area and had given instructions about the two addresses, the court heard.<\/p>\n
Lavrynovych \u201cneeded the money\u201d, though he had not been paid, the court heard. He said he \u201cfelt threatened\u201d as El Money said he \u201cwould have to do the job as he knew where I lived\u201d, the court heard. Lavrynovych said he was \u201cscared\u201d as his grandmother shared his address.<\/p>\n
Lavrynovych said he \u201cdid not commit arson at any address\u201d.<\/p>\n
The trial is expected to last three weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The prime minister\u2019s sister-in-law has said she feared what might have happened had she not woken up after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-559522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}