Man accused of Jo Cox killing searched for '˜Ku Klux Klan' before attack - court

Accused Thomas Mair visited internet pages about Jo Cox and an MP murdered by the IRA, both times using a computer in Birstall library three days before the killing, the court was told.
By The Newsroom
Published 14th Nov 2016, 16:21 BST
Updated 16th Nov 2016, 17:02 BST
Jo Cox.Jo Cox.
Jo Cox.

The jury was told that the 53-year-old gardener had used the computers at the same library to access websites in the weeks leading up to Mrs Cox’s death. In May, Mair accessed the Wikipedia page of “far right” online publication Occidental Observer which covers “politics and society from a white nationalist and anti-Semitic perspective”, the court heard.

On June 13, he looked at the Twitter and Wikipedia pages for Mrs Cox, and the Wikipedia page for Conservative Ian Gow, whose killing by the IRA made him the last sitting MP to be murdered until that point, jurors were told.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He went on to view information about former foreign secretary William Hague, another Yorkshire-based Remain supporter. Mr Whittam said Mair also looked at information on .22 gun ammunition, including answers to the question: “Is a .22 round deadly enough to kill with one shot to a human head?” On June 15, the eve of the attack, he is alleged to have researched topics including right-wing politicians,the Ku Klux Klan and civil rights activists killed by its supporters, and “Israel and prominent Jewish individuals”.

Related topics:Jo CoxIRAWilliam Hague