‘Nazi-inspired’ Thomas Mair jailed for life for murder of MP Jo Cox

Thomas Mair has been found guilty of murdering MP Jo Cox, who was shot and stabbed to death in her west Yorkshire constituency earlier this year.

Mair will spend the rest of his life in jail and can only be released on the order of a Home Secretary following the verdict at the Old Bailey today.

The 53-year-old did not enter a plea and chose not to give any evidence in his defence during the trial, the BBC reports.

He did make a request to address the court ahead of his sentencing, but was declined by Judge Mr Justice Wilkie.

Sentencing Mair, the judge described his actions as those designed to further the cause of violent white supremacy linked with Nazism.

He also said that while Mair had styled himself as a patriot, it was Mrs Cox who was the true patriot.

During the trial the court heard that Mair had planned his attack on the Labour MP for weeks and had researched the assassinations of other MPs.

In a strong statement sentencing Mair, Mr Wilkie told him he was no patriot, and had "betrayed the quintessence of our country":

Mrs Cox, a mother of two young children, was attacked by Mair on June 16 while in Birstall, a town in her constituency of Batley and Spen.

She was shot three times a sawn-off .22 hunting rifle and then while on the ground Mair attacked her with a knife, stabbing the 41-year-old 15 times.

Despite emergency surgery she died in the back of an ambulance shortly after.

Mair was also found guilty of having a firearm with intent, having an offensive weapon, and causing causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Bernard Kenny

The 78-year-old was attacked by Mair when he tried to intervene to help Mrs Cox.

The judge said Mair’s offence was so exceptional that it merited a whole life jail sentence.