Neo-Nazi Hears Fate for 'Brutal' Killing of UK Lawmaker

White supremacist Thomas Mair murdered Jo Cox
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Nov 23, 2016 11:33 AM CST
Jail for Life for Neo-Nazi Who Murdered UK Lawmaker
Brendan Cox, husband of murdered British lawmaker Jo Cox, speaks Wednesday outside the Old Bailey in London after Thomas Mair was found guilty of her murder.   (Philip Toscano)

A white supremacist who shot and stabbed a pro-European UK lawmaker while shouting "Britain first" was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for a crime prosecutors called an act of far-right terrorism. Jurors at London's Central Criminal Court deliberated for less than two hours before unanimously finding 53-year-old Thomas Mair guilty of murdering Labour Party legislator Jo Cox, the AP reports. Mair fired three shots at 41-year-old Cox with a sawn-off .22 rifle and stabbed her 15 times with a 7-inch dagger outside a library in the area she represented in northern England on June 16. Mair didn't visibly react as he was convicted of murdering Cox and wounding 77-year-old Bernard Kenny, a passer-by stabbed as he tried to stop the attack in Birstall.

Judge Alan Wilkie sentenced Mair to life with no chance of parole for the "brutal and ruthless" killing. The judge said the murder was carried out to advance a political cause "of violent white supremacism associated with Nazism." Cox had been a strong voice arguing for Britain to remain in the EU during a divisive referendum campaign focusing heavily on immigration; she'd also urged Britain to accept more Syrian refugees. The murder took place a week before Britain's Brexit referendum. Mair refused to enter a plea, so the court entered a not-guilty plea for him; his lawyers gave no evidence in his defense. He didn't speak during his trial, and when he asked to address the court after the verdict, the judge refused. (More Jo Cox stories.)

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