A Ukrainian racist terrorist today admitted murdering an 82-year-old grandfather and plotting to blow up three mosques.
Pavlo Lapshyn, 25 a postgraduate student, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to stabbing Mohammed Saleem as he walked home from a mosque in April.
He also admitted places bombs outside three mosques in the Midlands and downloading material about poisons, explosives and weapons from the internet.
One bomb planted outside the Tipton mosque blew nails and debris over a 70 metre radius.
Lapshyn had timed the device to explode at exactly the time of 1pm prayers.
He was not aware that prayers that day had been put back an hour because of Ramadhan which potentially saved massive loss of life.
Fortunately the mosque was empty and none of the three explosions, including blasts in Wolverhampton and Walsall, caused injury.
When he was arrested Lapshyn told detectives he wanted to start a race war between whites and non-whites.
Detectives found bomb making components for creating even greater explosions.
In a short hearing Lapshyn, from Dnipropetrovsk, entered his guilty pleas and will be sentenced by Mr Justice Sweeney on Friday.
The Ukrainian had been in the UK just five days when he stabbed Mr Saleem.
The pensioner and father-of-seven was stabbed three times just yards from his house as he walked home alone after worship, on April 29, prompting an outpouring of grief from the community where he lived.
Lapshyn had been on a sponsored work placement at a software firm in the Small Heath area of Birmingham.
He was arrested on suspicion of Mr Saleem's murder after the bomb explosions in June and July.
In plotting the explosions over the previous three months he bought batteries, a lunch bag, clock and container as part of the construction of an explosive device.
He also carried out internet research and visiting intended locations to plant explosive devices, purchasing chemicals to make explosive devices and modifying mobile phones to act as detonators.
