Killer at the Crime Scene - Season 4 Episode 4 -
Mohammed Saleem
#CinemaJourney
Mohammed Saleem
#CinemaJourney
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FunTranscript
00:00I was a horrible violent attack on an elderly male.
00:09He was lying there bleeding, he'd been stabbed.
00:13The nature of the stabbing is brutal.
00:16The perpetrator appears to be somebody who really wanted to kill.
00:24Last thing that people would ever think would happen, all of a sudden people are fearful
00:28of their lives.
00:31Our role is to recover the evidence, we're collectors of evidence, but sometimes the
00:36evidence just isn't there to prove who's attacked and murdered this gentleman.
00:42This was a real critical incident.
00:44I think it's fair to say we're all worried because it was escalating, the threat was
00:48increasing.
00:49We felt under a lot of pressure to catch this person.
00:52There's a lot of work going on in the background trying to find that evidence before it's
00:57too late because the offender might strike again.
01:27A call came in late in the evening about a man who'd been attacked in the street.
01:46This was clearly a very, very violent attack.
01:50The priority at a crime scene such as this, first of all, who is the person?
01:55That's important for us to try and identify who they are.
01:57But then it's about gathering the best evidence and we just want to catch the person before
02:02anything else happens.
02:06Residents identify the man as 82-year-old Mohamed Salim.
02:11Paramedics find he has lost a lot of blood and waste no time blue-lighting him to hospital
02:16as CSIs enter the scene.
02:24I've been to a number of scenes like this where literally you attend the site where
02:28an incident's happened and there's nothing there bar blood.
02:32Detectives turn to the CSIs to understand what happened to Mohamed and what could have
02:38driven the attacker to use such violence.
02:42Distribution of blood at a crime scene can be really important because it helps to build
02:46a story and build a pattern as to what exactly's happened.
02:49There was a small blood trail leading to potentially where he'd first been attacked
02:55and then collapsed.
02:56The blood spatter indicates Mohamed was ambushed.
03:01Police go door to door while CSIs search through the cordon.
03:06When you have an outdoor scene, there's lots of considerations to think about.
03:09Firstly, it's the weather.
03:11Secondly, it's trying to preserve that outdoor scene.
03:14Thirdly, it's going to be how difficult it is to search for evidence in the dark.
03:19It's late at night, but in the morning, you've got members of the public, they'll all be
03:22wanting to go to work and there'll be a lot of traffic on the road.
03:26So time is of the essence on a scene like this.
03:33Before Mohamed reaches hospital, he is pronounced dead from his injuries.
03:41Detectives inform his family.
03:42I saw firsthand Mrs. Salim's family and the grief they had.
03:46You know, we're all human and we all have relatives.
03:51He was husband, dad, granddad.
03:54Heartbreaking, I can't imagine what it was like.
03:57It wasn't just a loss to the family.
04:00He lost a very vital part of the community.
04:06Uncle Salim was a lovely man.
04:08Big family, a lot of grandchildren.
04:11He had a very good sense of humour.
04:14He was one of the elders that you would always see whenever you came into the mosque.
04:19He would be from the first people to come in, prayed on a chair with a walking stick.
04:25He was one of the last people to leave.
04:27So he became like a pillar of this mosque and really had an impact, I must say.
04:34He was well respected and loved, well thought of.
04:37That had the biggest impact on me.
04:39So this really does stick out in my mind.
04:42But as detectives, we have to keep focused.
04:44So we started a murder investigation.
04:50We had three stab wounds which appeared really deep
04:53and it caused really catastrophic injuries,
04:57which tends to suggest that this was quite a quick, frenzied attack
05:00and there was very little contact between the two.
05:04It's really important to try and work out where the victim has been stabbed,
05:08how many times he's been stabbed, what he's been stabbed with.
05:11When the incident happens very quickly, the murder won't leave much trace.
05:15There will always be some kind of trace, but it might be that minute.
05:18It's very difficult to find.
05:20The most important thing is obviously to try and find the weapon.
05:23So not only can you tie it to the victim from blood,
05:26but you can also potentially tie it back to the offender.
05:30As CSIs focus their search, officers need to trace Mohamed's last movements.
05:39He went to prayers every day.
05:43He was on his way home from evening prayer at the time he was attacked.
05:48We normally have a very large congregation coming in for the prayer.
05:53And when he then left the mosque, there were still people around.
05:58And so they were the first ones to actually hear the commotion
06:03and then come up to him and try to help him as much as possible.
06:07He's only lived a couple of minutes away.
06:11And he's done this journey of going back and forth from his house to the mosque
06:15at least 10 times in a day for something like that to happen in a matter of seconds.
06:22Really shocking.
06:23Mohamed was less than 300 metres from home.
06:27Detectives speculate why someone would attack such a vulnerable man.
06:31At the time, there was no obvious motive.
06:34He still had his wallet with him, so it didn't look like it was a robbery.
06:39This attack makes no sense to anyone.
06:41Here we have an elderly man who's walking home using a stick
06:47and they've been attacked with force, brutal force.
06:52There's just no explanation.
06:57One of the things we do in an investigation like this,
06:59we look at have there been any similar crimes in the local area.
07:03We look at have there been knife crime, et cetera.
07:06Again, there was nothing there,
07:08so there's nothing that would give us a motive for this tragic crime.
07:13With no forensic traces found at the crime scene,
07:16detectives need a breakthrough.
07:18Police investigations rely heavily on forensic evidence
07:22and sometimes that evidence just isn't there.
07:25At a scene like this, where it's been such a violent attack,
07:27that must have been a very difficult conversation.
07:30The crime scene manager has to effectively say,
07:33we haven't got much evidence.
07:34We've got blood and not much else.
07:42This is clearly a very violent attack on Mr Salim.
07:45Obviously with his age, a very vulnerable man.
07:47It's really important to identify the person who's done this
07:49because if they've done this to Mr Salim,
07:51could they do this to somebody else?
07:53We'll be looking for witnesses,
07:54so we'll be doing what's called house to house.
07:57Anyone seeing actual incidents or heard something,
08:01we'll also be looking for CCTV.
08:05Looking around at the cameras there,
08:07the cameras covering the way to and from that scene.
08:10It's really important for us to find out who's done it
08:14and arrest them as quickly as we can.
08:2782-year-old grandfather, Mohamed Salim,
08:31has been stabbed and murdered while walking home.
08:36With no forensic traces at the scene,
08:39the major crime unit looked to the post-mortem
08:42for any intelligence on the murder weapon.
08:45Looking at the victim's three stab wounds
08:48would give you a potential indication
08:50of what kind of weapon might have been used.
08:52And it was indicated that it was a large hunting knife
08:54that had been used to kill Mr Salim.
08:58He had no defence injuries on his arms
09:00or any injuries on the front of his body,
09:02which immediately infers that he wasn't facing his attacker.
09:06He was either running away or walking away from somebody,
09:09and he's been attacked from behind.
09:12This tells me that there is somebody here
09:16who has been stabbed and murdered
09:18and has a knife in his hand.
09:20There is somebody here who targeted this elderly gentleman
09:25and, for some reason, had a real hatred towards him.
09:30They are driven purely by an emotion
09:34that we need to understand.
09:36The police need to explore all the possible leads
09:40and all possible motivations for the attack.
09:46As searches for the weapon continue,
09:48detectives request CCTV footage from over 60 cameras.
09:54The whole idea of examining CCTV
09:56is not just to try and find the offence itself,
09:59but also to backtrack and forward track
10:01what's happened before the offence and after.
10:04We need to try and find the route that the offender's taken,
10:06not just into the scene, but also away from the scene.
10:10The digital forensic team uncovers a potential lead.
10:14As part of that CCTV trawl,
10:16we did find an image of a male running away,
10:19quite a few roads away from the scene.
10:23Were they running from the scene of a murder
10:26or were they running from something else?
10:29We needed to trace that person.
10:31Had they seen something or were they involved?
10:38The footage is analysed frame by frame.
10:44Officers try to identify who that person is,
10:48but it wasn't a very good image.
10:49It just wasn't good enough to identify the person from it.
10:52But then looking for the CCTV,
10:54see if they could find them elsewhere in the area.
11:02The grainy CCTV is released to the press.
11:07The effect ripples through the community.
11:10Small Heath is a very close-knit, mainly Muslim community.
11:15Lots of families all know each other.
11:17Lots of people have worshipped at the mosque.
11:19So, certainly, it was a tremendous shock
11:22for people living in that road and that surrounding area.
11:26It's a very nice area to live in.
11:28Beautiful vibe, I'd like to describe it as.
11:33I've been around this area for about 20 years now,
11:35so I'm quite fond of it, quite fond of it.
11:38Quite fond of it. It's very multicultural.
11:40It's the last area where we've thought that we would feel unsafe.
11:43We have elderly and vulnerable people,
11:46just like Uncle Salim,
11:47leaving their house quite late at night for the prayer,
11:51or very early in the morning for the morning prayers.
11:53And so for something to happen here
11:56caused that level of fear and confusion.
12:01There are growing concerns that Mohammed was deliberately targeted
12:06and the community is under attack.
12:10The Mr. Salim case,
12:12where we know that it's a Muslim with a visible identity,
12:15he's left his prayers, he's going home, and he's targeted.
12:20And therefore, most people believe
12:21that Mohammed Salim was not a spontaneous attack.
12:24It was a premeditated, planned attack.
12:27It's a hate crime, ultimately.
12:29The climate at the time was very kind of hostile and Islamophobic.
12:34There was a rise in Islamophobic attacks.
12:37A lot of these sporadic attacks started to happen
12:40where ladies would have their headscarves ripped off,
12:44would be intimidated, would be verbally abused.
12:48It's a very difficult period
12:50where now you have to reassure even those who are vulnerable
12:55and try to make them comfortable and secure and safe.
13:00There was a real sense of sadness,
13:02a real sense of fear.
13:04Visiting the mosque and other places,
13:05there was a sense of working together and unifying together
13:09and actually being careful about your safety.
13:13The major crime unit tries to alleviate the community's fears,
13:18while CSIs continue to search for any trace of Mohammed's killer.
13:23At a scene like this, where it's been such a violent attack,
13:26there's pressure to find the evidence,
13:28but sometimes the evidence just isn't there
13:31and it's very difficult sometimes to convey that
13:35to the investigations team and the SIO.
13:38We effectively can't produce the goods,
13:40we can't produce the evidence to prove or disprove
13:43who's attacked and murdered this gentleman.
13:47We're hoping that there's further evidence
13:49or further intelligence that comes to light,
13:51which might then reignite investigations into the crime.
13:56We very much kept an open mind.
13:57It was still a horrendous crime.
13:58We just want to catch the person before anything else happened.
14:05Then a call comes in that changes the course of the investigation.
14:12There was a bang that evening.
14:15It was close to the Aisha Mosque in Walsall,
14:18by some railings by the side of the mosque.
14:22People who lived close by saw child lunchboxes in lots of pieces,
14:26but there were elements of what we now know as a bomb.
14:33At that time, I think it's fair to say we're all worried.
14:35A decision was made that the Counter-Terrorism Unit would investigate that.
14:39150 people were moved from their homes
14:42and helped by the local authority,
14:44as the Bomb Squad was called and the area cordoned off.
14:49Fortunately, no one is harmed.
14:52The Counter-Terrorism Unit arrive at the scene
14:54and CSIs enter the cordon.
14:58An explosion is a completely different type of crime scene.
15:01It's really important to try and ascertain what caused the explosions.
15:05Getting any forensic evidence from this device
15:08is crucial to that investigation.
15:10It needs to be done methodically,
15:12but quickly to try and ascertain who's put the device together.
15:17Finding the component parts of a device
15:19can help detectives do further research
15:22into where those parts come from,
15:24to then try and identify who's purchased these items.
15:29There are specialist forensic labs that deal with explosives,
15:32so the FEL lab, which is the Forensic Explosive Lab,
15:35that deals specifically with incendiary devices and bombs.
15:39So that lab is the lab that's used to investigate
15:43and to effectively put the device back together
15:46and work out what the component parts are of the device.
15:50The remnants of the bomb are sent to the FEL for analysis.
15:56An IED is an improvised explosive device,
15:58and simply it is an explosive device that is made by an individual
16:03or individuals normally in a domestic premises
16:05or outside of a professional setting.
16:08The material that was used in this particular case
16:10is what we call a peroxide explosive.
16:12In terms of its explosive power,
16:14it has an explosive power of about three quarters that of peroxide.
16:19So it's quite a substantial charge.
16:23But the bomber made a life-saving mistake.
16:28The device in the incident here only partially went off.
16:32You didn't get a full involvement of all the charge that was in there.
16:36The person who made the device hasn't been particularly good
16:39at making the chemicals that you need
16:40to cause the charge to detonate, essentially.
16:44The person who set it hadn't got it quite right.
16:48Thankfully, the consequences could have been horrendous.
16:53The community would be absolutely frightened.
16:56At this point, they would know that they're being targeted.
16:59There is somebody out there
17:01who have a clear hostility and prejudice towards them.
17:06The police need to contain the fear and the anxiety of the community
17:11whilst also being very focused on their investigation.
17:16Forensics look for traces of the offender on the lunchbox that housed the bomb.
17:27Normally, explosive devices don't cause fires.
17:30They normally just explode.
17:32Therefore, the potential for being able to find fingerprints and DNA
17:36on the component parts of the device is quite high.
17:39First thing to do on an exhibit like this would be to swab for DNA.
17:43Use a pointy swab,
17:44because the pointy swab gets into all the nooks and crannies in the grooves.
17:47I'm going to swab the zips.
17:49What you're trying to do is find out who may have handled this.
17:59The outside surface of this lunchbox is fabric,
18:02so it's very difficult to get any fingerprints from there,
18:04potentially fingerprint some of the inside.
18:06The powder that I'm going to use is black magnetic.
18:10And then just slowly use the powder to see if you can develop any fingerprints.
18:18I'm just running the powder over the surface to see if there's any marks,
18:21but there's no fingerprints on the inside of this section here.
18:27The perpetrator appears to have been careful to leave no trace.
18:34The digital forensic team's investigation continues.
18:39It scours all CCTV opportunities.
18:43Our CCTV trawl has to start where the bomb was left.
18:47So we started to look at everyone who'd walked into that scene
18:50within the hours before the bomb went off and walked out at that time.
18:57And eventually we did identify a male.
19:00He walked in with a bag and walked out without the bag.
19:04And the bag looked very much the size of our bomb.
19:10So that was our starting point.
19:11And our starting point then goes to what we call tracking.
19:14And when he left the scene, we look at which way did he go?
19:18I call it a foot chase by CCTV.
19:26Did he go down that road?
19:27If we track every camera he went on the road,
19:29every time a car goes past, the danger is has he got in a car or not?
19:34The digital team trawls through hours of CCTV in search of the bomber.
19:41In Small Heath, police speak to locals for any leads to Mohammed's killer.
19:46Then another terrifying event hits the West Midlands.
19:54Exactly three weeks after the Walsall explosion,
19:59a second mosque is targeted.
20:01When that bomb went off, the size of the explosion
20:04sent shrapnel quite a distance right across roads,
20:06broke windows, embedded itself in trees.
20:09Thankfully, nobody was injured.
20:11Had anyone been in the way of any of that shrapnel,
20:13they would have been severely injured, if not worse.
20:16It was happening on a Friday.
20:17It was during Ramadan.
20:19This was declared as a terrorist incident
20:22because it looked like a direct attack on a mosque.
20:26This bomb was set to go off 10 minutes before Friday,
20:3010 minutes before Friday prayers were taking place.
20:34Now, Friday is an important day for the Islamic religion,
20:38and this bomb maker knew that there would be
20:42a large number of people gathering to pray at this time.
20:46So this person was intent on causing maximum impact,
20:51targeting the Islamic population.
20:54Thankfully, because it was during Ramadan,
20:56the times of prayers had changed.
20:58Otherwise, it would have been full of people
21:00walking to and from the mosque.
21:02There would have been people in the streets outside.
21:04There would have been a number of casualties.
21:09This event escalated it to a different level.
21:12Of course, Fridays for us is a special day.
21:14I always compare it to Sunday for the Christians
21:18and the Saturday for the Jews.
21:19It's our special day.
21:20So we have a very large congregational prayer on Fridays.
21:25And for us not to feel safe on that day,
21:28it's a very sad thing, to be honest.
21:31Because for someone to do something
21:33to such a large gathering of people
21:35on their holy day, on their special day,
21:38it takes a certain level of hate
21:42to then commit a crime like that.
21:45The bomb attacks against the mosques had a similar flavor
21:49of their violent tendencies that moved forward
21:52because they're not apprehended by the police.
21:55Maybe that gives them this willpower,
21:57this kind of idea, empowerment,
21:59that I can go out and do something more damaging.
22:03And this could be them planning and plotting these bombs
22:06so that he can maim and kill more Muslims.
22:09Looking at the days, two bombs were known
22:11to go off on a Friday.
22:13So our concern was,
22:14was another bomb going to go off the following Friday?
22:16So this was a real critical incident.
22:19Following the bomber's MO,
22:22the counter-terrorism team fears
22:24the next bomb will be even more powerful.
22:27And could be fatal.
22:31We've got a bomber operating in this area.
22:35We need to find out who they are before it's too late.
22:48The West Midlands Major Crime Unit
22:50are searching for the killer
22:52of grandfather and community figure,
22:55Mohammed Saleem.
22:57It was a shock
22:59because it was the last thing
23:00that people would ever think would happen.
23:01Who in his right mind would attack an 82-year-old
23:04vulnerable man walking with a walking stick?
23:06He was a very lovely person,
23:08very strong family orientated as well.
23:10So he had a very strong impact on the community.
23:15Counter-terrorism have deployed a team of CSIs
23:18to the scene of a second bomb attack
23:20outside a mosque in the West Midlands.
23:22When an explosion happens,
23:24there's a huge amount of destruction.
23:26There's a lot of debris that can be thrown
23:29from quite a huge area.
23:31It's paramount to try and recover the maximum evidence.
23:34So the cordons for the area have to be set a lot wider
23:37and the search teams have to search a lot more
23:40in the surrounding areas looking for parts of the device
23:44or anything that might have been damaged by that device.
23:46All the vital bits of shrapnel
23:48and evidence that's come out of that bomb is recovered
23:52because it's really important to check
23:53if there's any unique markings
23:55on any of the nuts and bolts or screws within the device.
23:59Therefore, you might be able to find out
24:01where those were made and sold
24:03because that might tell you who your offender is.
24:07From the radius of destruction,
24:09CSI is on the move to find out
24:11if there's any evidence of a bomb attack.
24:14From the radius of destruction,
24:16it's clear that this is a much more powerful device
24:19than the Walsall bomb.
24:22The second device, essentially,
24:24you're dealing with at least half a kilogram
24:26of equivalent TNT.
24:28By the very virtue of the fact
24:30that they're adding additional shrapnel to a device,
24:33that indicates that you have an intention
24:35to cause harm or loss of life.
24:38People that do this sort of thing
24:40where they're making explosives,
24:42almost similar to serial arsonists,
24:44in terms of they tend to get better at what they do
24:47the more they do it.
24:49The first or second device may or may not work so well,
24:52and then as you go through the process,
24:53they get better at making the chemicals,
24:54they get better at setting the device off.
24:56People like this can be driven to improve and get better
25:00because they're essentially practicing.
25:03This is somebody who is intent on causing harm and fear.
25:09They are starting to build a bit more confidence
25:13at every stage, trying to make it bigger and more harmful.
25:17It is a real concern.
25:20With the bombings just three weeks apart,
25:22the counter-terrorism team believe
25:24they have just six days left before the next attack.
25:28They must determine which of the 200 mosques
25:31in the West Midlands will be targeted next.
25:34We recognized that it was a real threat
25:36to the Muslim community.
25:38We felt under a lot of pressure to catch this person.
25:40We were just really concerned.
25:42Another incident, someone else could lose their lives.
25:45Within West Midlands Police,
25:46we had officers working around the clock.
25:48The whole force is working 12-hour shifts
25:50because we had to protect our Muslim community
25:53from any more attacks.
25:55The team's strongest lead is the grainy figure
25:57seen on CCTV at the Walsall crime scene.
26:01Searching through hundreds of hours of footage
26:03across the region,
26:06digital experts trace his movements.
26:10When he left the scene,
26:11we tracked him all the way across Walsall
26:13into Walsall bus station and got the bus into Birmingham.
26:19He was very CCTV aware.
26:22He had a cap on.
26:23It makes it more difficult.
26:24We see him get off a bus in Birmingham.
26:29He walks past the bullring, quite distinctive there.
26:31And then, really coolly, he goes into a shop
26:34and buys a bottle of wine.
26:36So we're looking at the CCTV in the shop,
26:37trying to see a facial image.
26:39But he's really careful.
26:41Had his head down all the time,
26:42as if he was really conscious of this.
26:45And then we tracked him out of the shop
26:46and into the bus station.
26:48We got the bus into the bus station.
26:49We got the bus into the bus station.
26:51We got the bus into the bus station.
26:52And then we tracked him out of the shop
26:54and then he gets onto another bus.
26:57We then tracked that bus
26:59and he gets off in Smallheath.
27:09The bus stop is just metres away
27:11from where Mohammed Saleem was murdered.
27:14This is a real turning point for the investigation.
27:17Our working hypothesis was
27:19he lived somewhere in the Smallheath area.
27:23So what we then thought is,
27:24let's try and find him going out.
27:26He might not have been as careful.
27:29We tracked a lot of buses going out
27:31from Smallheath to Birmingham and then to Walsall
27:34earlier on that day, on the 21st of June.
27:41So by looking through those images,
27:43we eventually found that person
27:45and we found a full facial image of him.
27:49And this was a real breakthrough moment for us.
27:52We saw he was carrying a bag.
27:55Police believe the bag is housing the Walsall bomb,
27:59putting everyone on the bus in danger.
28:03The peroxide explosive HMTD
28:05has a very high shock sensitivity
28:07and a very high friction sensitivity as well.
28:09So you can initiate it with friction or shock quite easily.
28:13So it can easily be set off unintentionally
28:16if you're transporting it.
28:17So carrying it around in a bus,
28:18if you drop whatever it is you've got in your hand,
28:21it's the potential with these sorts of explosives
28:23that they may detonate.
28:26We know how easily that could have been detonated.
28:30So on a full capacity bus,
28:32the consequences would have been horrific.
28:36The suspect is taking all the risks
28:39that they need to cause maximum damage.
28:45Detective Superintendent Sean Edwards
28:48wastes no time prioritising the bag as his next lead.
28:53We saw the bag came from a local superstore.
28:56As detectives, we went to that supermarket
28:58and got CCTV for that day.
29:04And found him in the store on that day
29:07coming out of the shop with the bag
29:09that was subsequently carried to Walsall.
29:14So now we had two clear facial images
29:17it was really imperative to try and identify this person.
29:20We strongly believe that was our bomber.
29:23With just three days to go
29:25before the next suspected bomb attack,
29:28the CCTV images are circulated around the West Midlands.
29:32We put a lot of officers in the area
29:34with his photograph trying to find him.
29:36And then we circulated his photograph to the media
29:39asking who knows this person.
29:47Really surprisingly, we didn't get any calls at all.
29:50No one named him.
29:54Detectives put all resources on the ground in Smallheath.
29:58We targeted that area by old-fashioned detective work.
30:01We had so many officers on there working 12 hours a day
30:04because of this threat.
30:05There was two local neighbourhood officers
30:07who knew the community in Smallheath.
30:10We went into this industrial area
30:12and showed these images.
30:14Do you know this person?
30:15Yeah, that's one of the foreign students who is staying here.
30:19Just one day before the next feared bomb attack,
30:23the suspect is named as Pavlo Lapshin.
30:27He was from Ukraine.
30:28He'd been in the country a few weeks.
30:30He was living in an adapted warehouse
30:33as part of a exchange programme,
30:35which is why he wasn't known
30:36and why we didn't get any calls about him.
30:38They called on the radio that he was there.
30:40He was there.
30:41He was there.
30:42He was there.
30:42He was there.
30:43He was there.
30:43He was there.
30:44He was there.
30:44He was there and they went to arrest him.
30:48He did struggle with it,
30:49but he was quickly restrained and arrested.
30:53A search warrant is secured for his accommodation.
30:59The home address of the suspect was a flat above the factory.
31:02So that crime scene then becomes a huge crime scene
31:06that needs a lot of attention.
31:09You're entering a completely unknown area or unknown scene
31:12with materials or risks that, again, are unknown.
31:16Obviously, going into anything like that
31:18is going to be inherently dangerous
31:19because you simply don't know
31:20what you're dealing with when you walk in.
31:22The factory had to be evacuated.
31:24The neighbouring houses will need to be evacuated.
31:27You're going to have to send police officers into that scene,
31:30but there's the risk of more devices.
31:33There's the risk of risk to human life
31:35of the members of the public.
31:36Is the address booby-trapped?
31:39It needs a lot of specialists attending
31:41and it needs to be a very controlled
31:43and methodical examination without risk to anybody's life.
31:48As soon as the area is evacuated,
31:51specialist search teams enter his flat.
31:55When we searched his home, it was quite chilling.
31:58We found several of the bombs.
32:00The bombs he was making seemed to increase in power.
32:04There were a number ready to go with another component,
32:06so mobile phones, chemicals,
32:08and he started putting those together.
32:10Quite a sophisticated way.
32:11He obviously knew how to put bombs together.
32:15That told us he was planning a campaign
32:18and what we feared that he was planning a campaign
32:21would have come true had he not been caught.
32:26When a house search is conducted,
32:28not only do you have to recover the component parts of the device,
32:31but also he's been seen on CCTV wearing clothing.
32:36It's really important to search the property for that clothing
32:39because forensic tests need to be done on that clothing.
32:43Is there anything we'll be able to confirm
32:45what we've got at the crime scene?
32:48Clothing matching those seen on CCTV is fast-tracked to the lab.
32:55I'm going to pop the needle in the bag
32:57and suck out a portion of air.
33:00The initial investigation would be to examine
33:03if there's any contaminants
33:05or if there's any chemical that can be detected on the air.
33:08In the bag above the exhibit,
33:10you're looking for any accelerants or volatile liquids
33:13that have seeped off the exhibit within the bag
33:15that might link back to the explosion.
33:18So then you place this into a knife tube.
33:24Secure it in an exhibit bag.
33:27These knife tubes have metal ends
33:30to prevent any movement of the exhibit and any damage.
33:36I'm going to pop the bag open.
33:38You've got the item out.
33:53I'm going to mini-tape the inside.
33:55Remove the surface of this tape.
33:58It reveals the sticky side to it.
34:01And then you would mini-tape the area
34:02where either around the waistband or inside of the pockets
34:06where you're most likely to get wearer's DNA.
34:10And you just pop the mini-tape on the stern back into the pot.
34:20CSIs recover all of Lapshin's personal devices.
34:24We would look at any digital evidence.
34:26So mobile phones, computers,
34:29they would be seized and downloaded
34:31by digital forensics teams
34:33so that we can ascertain exactly what searches he's been doing.
34:37The digital forensics teams are incredible.
34:39They can recover a lot of evidence from a digital device
34:42even if it looks like it's been deleted.
34:45They prioritize his laptop.
34:48By looking at that,
34:49we found quite a wealth of evidence against him.
34:53On there, he'd been searching himself.
34:56The moss that he targeted,
34:57he'd done a Google search of those.
34:59He'd looked at how to get to and from them
35:02so we could see that it had been meticulously planned.
35:06Among Lapshin's files,
35:08investigators make a disturbing discovery.
35:11Chillingly, he'd also searched details on the murder of Mohammed Saleem.
35:16And in there, we found a photograph of him holding a knife,
35:21which the pathologist said
35:23that is the type of knife that would have caused those injuries.
35:25So we believe this was a knife that killed Mohammed Saleem.
35:32And this, for us, was quite a remarkable moment
35:34because we could see that clearly
35:36that he would be the main suspect for both the murder and the bombings.
35:57Police have arrested Pavlo Lapshin
36:00for two bomb attacks outside mosques in the West Midlands.
36:06And now, evidence points to him also being the killer
36:10of 82-year-old Mohammed Saleem.
36:30When we interviewed Pavlo Lapshin
37:00through an interpreter, he admitted what he'd done.
37:02But he's very proud of what he'd done.
37:05And when we asked why he'd done it,
37:07he said because he's not white and I am white,
37:10I wanted to increase racial conflict.
37:12So a real chilling motive for the murder of Mohammed Saleem.
37:17We were all monitoring the interview.
37:20He said to us, yeah, I set all three bombs off.
37:23And that was news to us because we only knew the two.
37:28When we asked him about the other one,
37:30he told us it was one in Wolverhampton.
37:32He gave us details of it.
37:33He said it was a roundabout by the mosque in Wolverhampton
37:36that hadn't been reported to the police previously.
37:39We sent officers to the scene, looked at the roundabout
37:42and found fragments of a small explosion that had gone off there.
37:46The discovery of fragments of a device on this roundabout opposite the mosque
37:50showed there'd been an explosion there several weeks ago.
37:53The third time a Muslim place of prayer had been targeted in the last month.
37:58Those two crimes, in terms of MO as it were,
38:03might be different, but the motivation behind them is exactly the same.
38:06It's just pure racism.
38:10Lafshin actually says that he wants a race war.
38:14This was all about biological superiority.
38:17This idea that people of colour were inferior to people who are white.
38:21We wanted to be part of this idea of him being a soldier
38:25fighting for this greater cause against the Muslim invaders.
38:30As a soldier, Lafshin can justify his actions
38:33because he legitimises their victims.
38:38On the 22nd of July,
38:40Pavlo Lafshin is charged with the terrorist-related murder of Mohammed Salim.
38:46Having the knife would have been the icing on the cake.
38:49However, he'd already admitted it.
38:50He told us things that he didn't, that only the murderer would know.
38:54We have pictures of him holding a knife, which the pathologist said
38:58that is the type of knife that would have caused those injuries.
39:00So we were very confident of the evidence we had.
39:04Even though the offender's admitted the crime,
39:07at any stage, he might turn up in court and then say,
39:10oh, I'm not guilty.
39:11And therefore, we have to prepare the case to be able to still prove,
39:15beyond reasonable doubt, that this is our offender and this is what he's done.
39:19We didn't know whether he would want to have his day in court
39:23to espouse his ideology.
39:25So that was our concern, and we planned for a trial.
39:28We wanted to clearly show this was a racist, a terrorist,
39:32intent on causing fear amongst the Muslim community
39:36and actually murder Mr Salim.
39:38So I sent staff out to Ukraine to liaise with the Ukrainian authorities
39:41just to understand more about Pavlo Lafshin.
39:49What we found was a young man who'd been at university,
39:51had done very well at university,
39:53so he'd got an exchange programme to come to the UK.
39:57We know, when we speak to local police,
39:59that he'd been trying setting off bombs in Ukraine
40:02just to test and experiment.
40:04He'd been dealt with for what they termed as a health and safety incident,
40:08where he'd actually blown his kitchen up in his house.
40:10He obviously knew how to put bombs together.
40:13When we looked at his laptop,
40:14there were photos of quite large explosions
40:17that we found out were in Ukraine.
40:19These were bombs he'd set off.
40:24But, in the UK, he wasn't as successful.
40:28I think part of the issue was his English wasn't brilliant,
40:31so translating the chemicals he had in Ukraine
40:33to the chemicals in the UK
40:36may have accounted for him not going off quite right.
40:39But he was obviously honing his skills,
40:41honing his English, his chemistry knowledge.
40:44Detectives work with Ukrainian authorities
40:46to find out if Pavlo Lafshin was involved in the attack.
40:49It's also really important to see if there's any other offenders.
40:52Has he been working alone or are there other people within his network?
40:57And, if so, they need to be identified and arrested.
41:02Police are finding a lot of literature around online radicalisation.
41:06They find lots of white supremacist memorabilia.
41:10He's searching white supremacist memorials.
41:12He's looking for a white supremacist memorial.
41:14He's looking for a white supremacist memorial.
41:16He's looking for a white supremacist memorabilia.
41:19He's searching white supremacist websites.
41:22He uses that as an inspiration.
41:24He's radicalising himself.
41:26And this is why people call him a lone wolf.
41:29We were very confident nobody else was involved.
41:32We were very confident he was what we call a self-initiated terrorist.
41:35He wasn't directed by anybody else.
41:38But I think he thought he maybe was cleverer than us.
41:41He took great steps. He was very forensically aware.
41:44He never took a mobile phone with him,
41:45equally with both the murder and the bombings.
41:49He washed everything in high-strength vodka
41:52because he thought that would get rid of most of the forensic traces.
41:56He did think he got away with it, as it were, and was planning on carrying on.
42:01Lapshin's search history reveals that before moving to the UK,
42:05he was researching where he could buy explosive chemicals.
42:10Just two days after moving to Smallheath, he brought a large hunting knife.
42:16Which matches the fatal injuries inflicted on Mohamed Salim.
42:20The police can see search histories related to two years ago what he's planning.
42:25So when he comes to the UK, he finds a victim,
42:30unfortunately in this case, Mohamed Salim,
42:31and then he's motivated to commit the act of violence.
42:35So although it only takes him days to commit this act of terrorism,
42:38in fact, he's been planning this over a very long time before.
42:41Even though in both of these crime scenes,
42:44there wasn't much physical traditional forensic evidence,
42:48fingerprints, DNA, footprints, tyre marks, there's always digital evidence.
42:58At trial, Lapshin pleads guilty to the three bombings
43:04and to the racially motivated murder of Mohamed Salim.
43:11He is sentenced to life.
43:14With a minimum of 40 years.
43:17The evidence we had was overwhelming.
43:21But he showed no remorse for this.
43:24An elderly man who was well respected and loved,
43:27taken away for a horrible, racist motive.
43:31The tragic death of Mr Salim had a huge impact.
43:34The murder teaches us lots of different lessons,
43:36and part of those is trying to come together as a community, as one.
43:40We need to unite when it comes to incidents like this.
43:43Terrorism tries to create a psychological fear,
43:46and we need to show that as a community, as a group, we're not afraid.
43:50And that you don't have to be Muslim to be impacted by Islamophobia.
43:54It's a hate crime, ultimately.
43:55And a hate crime has no place in any society.
44:00At the end of a case like that, from a policing perspective,
44:03it is a satisfaction to see a dangerous terrorist go to prison
44:07for the rest of his life and keep people safe.
44:09That's why we joined the police service.
44:11But part of that, you take away with you the family,
44:14and I can't imagine the grief and loss that Mr Salim's family went through.
44:19Uncle Salim always had that very contagious smile.
44:24He'd always be open to speak to people and give advice.
44:30He's a very lovely man, very respectable man,
44:32and very respected as well.