Pavlo Lapshyn hunted down a Muslim to murder before he bombed three Midlands mosques to trigger a race war. Lapshyn came to Britain in April from Ukraine after winning a prize to further his studies, but within days he had stabbed Mohammed Saleem (age 82) in Birmingham.

A white supremacist who hoped to “ethnically cleanse” Muslims, Lapshyn has been told he will serve at least 40 years imprisonment for a terror campaign in which he hunted down a Muslim to murder before he bombed three Midlands mosques aiming to kill and maim worshippers.

His victim was walking home from a mosque with the aid of a walking stick in Small Heath, Birmingham, just after 10pm. Lapshyn approached the grandfather of 23 children from behind, and plunged the blade in so deep it reached the front of Saleem’s body. Saleem collapsed, with one wound 18 cm deep.

Lapshyn had pleaded guilty on Monday at the Old Bailey to the terrorist campaign of murder and bombings across the West Midlands from April to July. He confessed after his arrest that he was a violent racist and had parts for three more bomb attacks.

He placed bombs outside mosques in Walsall and Wolverhampton in June, before packing his final device with nails which was aimed at worshippers entering Friday lunchtime prayers at Tipton mosque.

Three hundred people would have been in the path of the shrapnel that shot across the car park, leaving nails embedded in tree trunks. But the mosque had temporarily moved prayers back one hour.

Lapshyn was sentenced to a minimum term of 40 years, with sentences of 12 years for the three mosque bombings to run concurrently. He was sentenced by the same judge overseeing the case of two men accused of murdering Lee Rigby in May in a London street.   »»» The Guardian

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