Racist student Pavlo Lapshyn admits murder of Muslim pensioner
A Ukrainian postgraduate student who moved to Birmingham after winning a work placement contest has admitted stabbing an 82-year-old Muslim pensioner within five days of arriving in the UK.
ITV News UK Editor Lucy Manning reports:
Pavlo Lapshyn landed in Britain on 24th April and killed Mohammed Saleem on 29th.
He wanted to "increase racial conflict" with a series of attacks on mosques as well as the murder of Mr Saleem, according to West Midlands Police.
He is due to be sentenced on Friday after admitting to the killing as well as causing an explosion on 12th July near the Kanzal Iman mosque in Tipton and planting bombs near mosques in Walsall and Wolverhampton.
Mohammed Saleem's daughter said she pitied Lapshyn. After seeing him in court, Shazia Khan said:
Lapshyn had also packed hundreds of nails into a bomb he planted near a Tipton mosque.
The device was the most powerful of the three he planted and exploded only an hour before Ramadan worshippers were set to begin prayers at the mosque although no one was injured by any of the explosions.
While being interviewed by police, Lapshyn openly demonstrated white supremacist views, telling detectives he believed himself, as a white man, to be superior to black and Asian people.
Delcam, the company who Ukrainian student Pavlo Lapshyn was on a temporary work placement with, said it was "deeply shocked and saddened" by his crimes.
Lapshyn's father told ITV News his grandmother was a Muslim and that he could not believe his son had committed the murder.
Sergey Lapshyn said: "I've got a lot of questions. First, I don't believe he killed anyone. I just can't believe this. Second, fascism...he never was involved in politics.
"Okay, he may have been stressed, something clicked and he got certain ideas. But then, why did he try to blow up a mosque, not a synagogue? There's no logic. I've got many questions, and not many answers."
Mr Lapshyn also spoke of a previous experiment his son carried out with explosives at his home in Ukraine.
A Ukrainian lecturer told ITV News Lapshyn was described as a "clever and shy" person and it was a surprise when he was charged with his crimes.