Sword attack plot neo-nazi is paedophile
A NEO-NAZI activist who plotted to murder a Labour MP in a sword attack is a convicted paedophile who was jailed for grooming two boys, it can be revealed.
Jack Renshaw, a member of the far-right group National Action before it was outlawed, admitted hatching a plan to kill Rosie Cooper, MP for West Lancs, after he was arrested on suspicion of child sex offences last year. He told fellow extremists he had been set up by the police and Left-wingers and sought National Action’s permission to take revenge.
But at a trial last year – which can only now be fully reported – Preston Crown Court heard that rather than being set up, Renshaw was in fact creating fake Facebook profiles to contact two boys aged 13 and 14. He told them he was rich and offered one £300 to spend the night with him. He asked for intimate photographs but was reported to police when one boy told his teacher.
Renshaw, 23, from Skelmersdale, Lancs, was jailed for 16 months and placed on the Sex Offenders’ Register for 10 years. The details could not be reported as he was awaiting trial over the plot to murder Ms Cooper.
He admitted the plot on the first day of his trial last year but denied being a member of National Action. The original jury failed to reach a verdict on that count and yesterday a second jury also failed to do so. He will not face another retrial for membership of National Action.
Renshaw, an unapologetic neo-nazi, told National Action colleagues of his plot at a Warrington pub but was arrested after an informant at the meeting alerted anti-extremist group Hope Not Hate.
The prosecution alleged Renshaw hatched his plot to divert attention from his sexuality. He had vehemently denied being gay, telling police he viewed homosexuality as “unnatural”.
But when police seized his phones they found online searches for homosexual pornography. Renshaw will be sentenced over the plot to kill on May 17.