Jo Cox murder trial: 'Police officer rugby tackled suspect Thomas Mair after shooting'

Public servant: MP Jo Cox
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A police officer told the Old Bailey today how he rugby-tackled the man suspected of murdering MP Jo Cox to the ground shortly after the alleged killing.

PC Craig Nicholls said he and a colleague, PC Jonathan Wright, knew the MP for Batley and Spen had been shot and stabbed as they were deployed in search of the killer.

They spotted Thomas Mair, 53, wearing a black baseball cap and clutching a black hold-all, walking in the Leeds Road area of Birstall, and believed he was the man they were looking for.

“I said to PC Wright ‘Is that him?’, PC Nicholls told the court.

“We drove past him initially, I spun the police vehicle round and at that point the male had disappeared.”

Witnesses: PC Craig Nicholls (left) and PC Jonathan Wright 
Victoria Jones/PA

PC Nicholls said they followed him around a corner into a cul-de-sac, and PC Wright leaned out of the window to tell the man to drop his bag and put his hands up.

“In his right hand he had a black hold-all and in his left hand he had something which was black which I honestly couldn’t tell you what it was”, said the officer.

“I knew a firearm had been discharged and somebody had been stabbed.”

PC Wright told the man to drop the bag repeatedly, the court heard, and eventually the man did put it on the ground.

Thomas Mair: He allegedly shot and stabbed the 41-year-old outside her constituency surgery
PA

“He turned around and put his hands in his pocket, I just remember seeing loose change falling out of his pocket”, said PC Nicholls. “At that point he put his arms out by his sides, then he said “it’s me”.

“We both ran towards the male - as we started running towards him he’s gone to put his hands down the front of his shirt.

“We rugby-tackled him to the ground. We didn’t have a conversation at all, it just happened.”

The court heard Mair banged his head on the ground when tackled, and was bleeding afterwards.

PC Nicholls added after he had been arrested and cautioned, Mair was silent but later told the officer: “I’m a political activist.”

Arrival at court: (Left to right) MP Jo Cox's sister Kim Leadbeater and parents Jean and Gordon Leadbeater
Victoria Jones/PA

He is alleged to have admitted he had a knife and a gun in his hold-all. He also dropped a plastic bag of bullets on the ground when he emptied his pockets.

However, Mair claims he stayed completely silent when he was arrested, and did not claim to be a “political activist”.

Prosecutor Richard Whittam QC said the “dynamic arrest” happened at around 1.25pm on June 16, as paramedics were making desperate attempts to save Ms Cox’s life.

She had been stabbed repeatedly just before 1pm and shot three times as she arrived at a constituency surgery in Market Street, Birstall.

Mair is accused of carrying out the murder for political reasons, saying “Britain First” repeatedly as he attacked the junior MP.

It is said he researched far right political groups, including the KKK and Nazis, in the days before the attack, and had looked up information on Ms Cox and fellow Yorkshire MP William Hague.

Mr Whittam told the jury yesterday the killing happened a week before the EU Referendum, when Ms Cox had been a vocal in her support of the Remain camp.

Mair denies murdering the MP and possession of an offensive weapon, and also denies attacking a pensioner, 77-year-old Bernard Kenny, who intervened to try to save Ms Cox.

The trial continues.

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