LONDON, Oct. 25 (UPI) -- A student from Ukraine was sentenced to at least 40 years in a British prison Friday for killing an elderly Muslim and planting bombs at mosques.
Pavlo Lapshyn, 25, was warned he will not be considered for parole until he has served at least the minimum term, The Guardian reported. Prosecutors had asked for a life sentence with no release.
Prosecutors said Lapshyn experimented with explosives before he arrived in Britain in April to do graduate work. He began researching racist groups on the Internet within days of his move to Birmingham.
Lapshyn pleaded guilty Monday at the Old Bailey in London. He admitted stabbing Mohammed Saleem, 82, who was killed as he walked home from a Birmingham mosque, and planting a powerful nail bomb outside a mosque in Tipton before Friday prayers on July.
The Tipton bomb exploded but did not kill anyone because prayers had been delayed for an hour. Lapshyn also admitted placing bombs at mosques in Walsall and Wolverhampton, and police who searched his apartment after his arrest found more bomb-making materials.
Louise Grey, a lawyer with the Crown Prosecution Service, said the case is a reminder of the connection between racist propaganda and actions.
"Pavlo Lapshyn is a dangerous man with a dangerous agenda," she said after the sentencing. "Just a day after his arrival in Britain from the Ukraine he was researching rightwing supremacist websites, including those linked to convicted racist murderers in Russia."
