Crispin Flintoff reports from Substack:
The Starmer arson trial didn't add up
I spent 21 days at the Old Bailey. What I heard in court was not the story later told by the BBC.
He concludes:
The public deserves to know what was actually heard in court, not just the version that the BBC put out to fit the government’s need for a cold or hot war with Russia.
If there had been peace in Ukraine, and if the US, the UK and the EU were not continuing to push for war, this trial may never have happened. These three young men would not have been in England seeking sanctuary from military conscription and working long hours in different jobs simply to make ends meet.
This whole thing reminds one of the Skripals, an equally bizarre case, that was shown to be full of holes.
Among other things, it seems unbelievable that the shadowy Russian/Ukrainian speaking 'handler' - El/EL Money - hired these guys using a Telegram account with his own initials.
On Day Three, El Money had been presented as Russian-speaking. By Day Four, it became clear that messages were in Russian and Ukrainian. In the witness box, Lavrynovych said he could not tell where El Money was from because messages were in both languages. Later, he referred to El Money as ‘they’. When cross-examined, he said there was at least one woman involved, possibly more, as well as two or three men. One message referred to ‘my husband’ checking up on the Toyota car.
And what was the point of all anyway?
It seems the only point of this arson was for some mysterious Russian to use some Ukrainians avoiding call-up to give the UK even more reason to talk up the Russian 'threat' and therefore to increase defence spending.
Isn't that what you call an 'own goal'?
'Cui bono?'
The widely discredited 'rent boy' angle was never fully explained in court either as Flintoff says.
Although the fact is that anyone can have an account on Grindr, it doesn't mean you are a 'rent boy'. Just like anyone can have an Onlyfans page but it doesn't mean you are a prostitute.
What is truly shocking is that this case cost the UK '...taxpayer more than £1 million. The judge revealed during the trial that the case was costing around £50,000 a day.'
Presumably they will cost less if trial-by-jury is abandoned in the UK to save money and reduce caseloads.