Lavrynovych, who started the fires, was also convicted of being reckless as to whether life was endangered in relation to two attacks on May 11 and 12 that year.<\/p>\n
The jury, which was presented with hundreds of pages of evidence, took seven and a half hours to reach a verdict.<\/p>\n
Mr Justice Garnham remanded Lavrynovych and Carpiuc in custody to be sentenced on Friday.<\/p>\n
The trial revealed that El Money had offered Lavrynovych \u00a33,000 in cryptocurrency if the blazes were filmed and made the news.<\/p>\n
During the trial, the prosecution urged the jury not to focus on who ordered the hit.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson KC said: \u201cIt is no part of your considerations to decide who \u2018El Money\u2019 is and what reason he might have had to co-ordinate the actions of these defendants against these properties and this car associated with the Prime Minister.\u201d<\/p>\n
But James Scobie KC, representing Lavrynovych, told the jury: \u201cLet\u2019s call it out.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia are interested in what this country does in support of Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Referring to El Money, Mr Scobie said: \u201cWhere\u2019s he from? Who might have an interest in trying to undermine this country, undermine this country\u2019s support of Ukraine who are fighting for their liberty?<\/p>\n
\u201cWho might want to send a blow to the Prime Minister? Show him: \u2018we know where you live\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir aim: publicity. And they got it. There\u2019s one winner here, no doubt about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sown atmosphere of chaos<\/p>\n
Kremlinologists say Vladimir Putin\u2019s regime has sown an atmosphere of chaos which could have created the circumstances for a hit on the Prime Minister to be ordered.<\/p>\n
Following Monday\u2019s verdict, Commander Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, said: \u201cCrimes, such as arson, being directed by anonymous online accounts promising payment, is a recurring trend in our casework.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur message to anyone who might be approached in this way, or thinking about doing similar, is to think again. As we\u2019ve seen here, you will not get paid as you are promised, you will be identified and brought to justice, and the only thing you will be left with is facing the prospect of a lengthy jail sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that while Lavrynovych and Carpiuc had not displayed an ideological motivation, \u201cclearly the intention from the online tasker was to create fear, both for the victim and the Prime Minister, and cause uncertainty, unrest, for the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n
Some security sources also detect Russian handiwork in a conspiracy around the case that has spread rampantly online: that the defendants \u2013 young, aspiring models \u2013 were in fact aggrieved \u201crent boys\u201d, who had torched Sir Keir Starmer\u2019s home because they had not been paid.<\/p>\n
The spurious claims stretch credulity, and are not borne out by the evidence presented in court, but the conspiracy has been promulgated far and wide online.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe aspiring male model community seems to be particularly opposed to property owned by Sir Keir,\u201d wrote one. \u201cI think there\u2019s a cover-up and Starmer has silenced the media,\u201d wrote another.<\/p>\n
Other security sources suggest the theory originated with Right-wing groups online, but note that Moscow is adept at amplifying theories that suit its agenda: sowing chaos and distrust.<\/p>\n
A government spokesman said: \u201cThis was an abhorrent attack and those responsible have now been brought to justice for their acts. We thank our partners in law enforcement and the Crown Prosecution Service for bringing these criminals to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, said: \u201cKeir Starmer and I disagree on many things, but good people across the political spectrum will welcome today\u2019s verdicts, condemn these appalling attacks which seem to have been sponsored by Russia and wish the PM and his family well.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhatever our political differences, no-one should face intimidation, threats or attacks because they hold public office.<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocracy is settled at the ballot box, not through fear or violence and definitely not through foreign interference from hostile countries.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lavrynovych, who started the fires, was also convicted of being reckless as to whether life was endangered in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3104,3103,551,1245,83,1528,82,25,11,1758],"class_list":["post-5837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-apple-news-free","tag-court-cases","tag-crime","tag-keir-starmer","tag-live-priority","tag-london","tag-news","tag-russia","tag-standard","tag-uk-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}