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| This memorial vigil for murdered MP Jo Cox was held in Bath, England. Photo CC-BY-SA Rwendland |
Thomas Mair, also of Birstall, is on trial for her murder, and has refused to speak in his defense, resulting in a default plea of not guilty. The evidence against Mair is overwhelming. Witnesses put him directly at the scene of the crime, where he was heard to shout “Britain first” several times while shooting and stabbing MP Jo Cox. Arrested shortly after the murder, he is on record as having said “it’s me.”
Mair is a self-described “political activist” but the trial is being treated as a terrorism matter, perhaps because of Mair’s decidedly right-wing version of political activism. He was found of be in possession of numerous writings about white supremacy, Nazi Germany and assassination, and a search history that reveals a interest in the KKK and the Nazi SS.
“Thomas Mair clearly held views that provided him with a motive, utterly misplaced of course, to kill,” said prosecutor Richard Whittam. “He killed her because she was an MP who did not share his views.”
When he was at his initial hearing following the arrest, Mair stated his name as “death to traitors, freedom for Britain.” MP Jo Cox was a supporter of Britain staying in the European Union, and she regularly spoke out against a wide variety of xenophobic arguments in favor of leaving the EU.
MP Jo Cox is the first MP to be murdered since MP Ian Gow was killed by the Irish Republican Army in 1990. Gow was killed by a bomb, planted under his car, by the terrorist organization that has long fought for Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and join the Republic of Ireland.
Mair does not seem to be involved in any specific organization, terrorist or otherwise.
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