Accused killer of U.K. lawmaker Jo Cox kept Nazi material
The Associated Press | Posted: November 21, 2016 3:22 PM | Last Updated: November 21, 2016
Police found Third Reich eagle, far-right books in Thomas Mair's home, court hears
Police searching the house of the accused killer of British lawmaker Jo Cox found a Third Reich eagle ornament with a swastika on it as well as far-right books and other Nazi material, a court heard on Monday.
There were also newspaper articles at the home of 53-year-old Thomas Mair about Cox, including a print-out of a piece she wrote for her local paper about why she wanted Britain to stay in the European Union.
Labour Member of Parliament Cox, 41, was shot three times and repeatedly stabbed on the street in the town of Birstall, part of her electoral district in northern England, shortly before Britain voted to leave the EU in June.
Mair declined to respond when asked at a pre-trial hearing in October to enter a plea, so a judge recorded pleas of not guilty to all charges on his behalf.
Jurors at the Old Bailey court heard the police search of Mair's sparsely furnished home had uncovered a cutting about Anders Breivik, a Norwegian far-right extremist who killed 77 people in 2011.
The Nazi eagle was on top of a bookcase in one of the bedrooms, while on neatly organised shelves were books about German military history and Nazi race theory.
Jurors have heard Cox's assailant had shouted something like "Keep Britain independent" and "Britain first," during the attack, which took place as she arrived to give an advice session to local residents at a library.
The trial continues.