By Michael Sercan Daventry
LONDON (AA) – A neo-Nazi who murdered an opposition British lawmaker during June’s EU referendum campaign was jailed for life on Wednesday, local media said.
Thomas Mair, a 53-year-old gardener, repeatedly shot and stabbed Labour parliamentarian Jo Cox in an attack in which he was heard to say “this is for Britain”, “keep Britain independent” and “Britain first”, the Old Bailey court in London heard.
Cox, a 41-year-old mother of two young children, died in hospital from her injuries following the street attack on June 16, a week before the Brexit vote.
Mair shot Cox three times with a sawn-off rifle and repeatedly stabbed her with a knife as she got out of her car in Birstall, West Yorkshire.
Her husband Brendan described the murder as an act of terrorism. In a statement to the court, he said he felt “nothing but pity” for Mair, the Yorkshire Post newspaper reported.
“Jo was interested in everybody, driven not by her ego but her desire to help,” he said. “The killing of Jo, in my view, was a political act and an act of terrorism.”
Judge Alan Wilkie said Mair would spend the rest of his life in prison due to the “exceptional seriousness” of his crimes, the Guardian newspaper reported on its website.
He refused Mair’s request to address the court.
“You are no patriot,” the judge told Mair. “By your actions you have betrayed the quintessence of our country — parliamentary democracy. You have not had the courage to admit what you did.”
He added: “There is no doubt it was done to further a political motive.”
Police found a print-out of Cox’s biography from her website when they searched Mair’s home, as well as an article in support of EU membership that she wrote in a local newspaper.
He kept a Nazi eagle insignia in his bedroom and had books on neo-Nazism and white supremacy.
Mair was also found guilty of possessing a knife and gun and causing grievous bodily harm to a 78-year-old local man who tried to save Cox.
