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Man pleads guilty to plot to murder Labour MP Rosie Cooper Man pleads guilty to plot to murder Labour MP Rosie Cooper
(35 minutes later)
A man has pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to preparing acts of terrorism by plotting to murder the Labour MP Rosie Cooper with a knife last summer. An alleged member of the banned neo-Nazi group National Action has admitted to plotting to kill a British MP and making threats to kill a police officer.
On the day his trial was due to start, Jack Renshaw, 23, of Skelmersdale, Lancashire, an alleged member of the banned far-right group National Action, also admitted making a threat to kill another woman, named as Victoria Henderson. Jack Renshaw, 23, of Skelmersdale, Lancashire, bought a “gladius machete” to kill the West Lancashire Labour MP Rosie Cooper last summer.
On Tuesday, the judge, Mr Justice Jay, directed the jury to deliver a formal guilty verdict on the first two charges Renshaw faces. On the opening day of the trial at the Old Bailey on Tuesday, Renshaw pleaded guilty to preparing acts of terrorism as well as making threats to kill a police officer, DC Victoria Henderson.
He is on trial alongside Christopher Lythgoe, 32, from Warrington, who denies giving Renshaw permission to murder the West Lancashire MP on behalf of National Action on 1 July last year. The judge, Mr Justice Robert Jay, directed the jury to deliver a formal guilty verdict on the two charges. Renshaw also faces a third charge of membership of the banned far right group, which he denies.
The pair – along with Garron Helm, 24, of Seaforth, Merseyside; Matthew Hankinson, 24, of Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside; Andrew Clarke, 33, and Michal Trubini, 35, both of Warrington – also deny membership of the banned far-right group. He is on trial alongside Christopher Lythgoe, 32, from Warrington, who is charged with encouraging Renshaw to murder Cooper on behalf of National Action, believing the act would be committed. He denies the charges.
Opening the trial, prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC said: “This case concerns these defendants and their support for, involvement in and membership of the proscribed racist neo-Nazi group National Action.” Four other men – Garron Helm, 24, of Seaforth, Merseyside, Matthew Hankinson, 24, of Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, Andrew Clark, 33, and Michael Trubini, 35, both of Warrington – are also charged with membership of National Action. They deny the charges.
He said Renshaw planned to carry out a politically and racially motivated murder in support of National Action. This was planned with the blessing of his leader, Lythgoe, jurors heard. The court heard how Renshaw bought the machete to kill Cooper between 5 June and 3 July last year. He made threats while in a pub in Warrington on 1 July last year, it was alleged.
He told jurors the group had engaged in a “campaign of virulent antisemitic and homophobic propaganda” since 2013. It tried to recruit and radicalise young people through violent images and hate-filled language, he said. Duncan Atkinson, prosecuting, told the court that National Action had, since 2013, engaged in a campaign of “virulently racist, antisemitic and homophobic propaganda through which it sought to stir up a violent ‘race war’ against ethnic minorities and others it perceived as ‘race traitors’.”
Its support for the murder of MP Jo Cox in June 2016 led to it being banned, Atkinson said. But he said the defendants remained active members of the organisation after it was proscribed. He said the group “actively sought to recruit and radicalise young people through the violent imagery and hate-filled language of its social media messages, its provocative street demonstrations and intimidation of local communities”.
Atkinson said evidence would come from a disenchanted former member of National Action, Robbie Mullen, who passed information to Hope Not Hate. It was such activities, culminating it its support of the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox in June 2016, that led to its proscription by the home secretary in December 2016.
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