Neo-Nazi who plotted to kill MP with sword is a paedophile
Extremist’s ‘white jihad’ attack was thwarted by whistleblower
A RIGHT- wing extremist who planned to kill an MP with a sword is a convicted paedophile who groomed underage boys.
It can now be reported that Jack Renshaw, 23, planned what he described as a ‘white jihad’ attack after growing angry about the child sex investigation into him.
He bought a 19-inch blade and plotted to kill not just Labour MP Rosie Cooper but also Detective Constable Victoria Henderson, who was investigating him for grooming and stirring up racial hatred.
His plot was scuppered by undercover whistleblower Robbie Mullen, who was at a gathering of farRight sympathisers in a pub when Renshaw announced his plot.
The informal meeting came a year after Labour MP Jo Cox was murdered by a far-Right extremist near her constituency office.
Renshaw, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, admitted making preparations to kill Miss Cooper in 2017 and making a threat to kill the police officer. He will be sentenced for these offences in May.
However, he denied membership of banned extreme Right-wing group National Action along with Andrew Clarke, 34, of Prescot, Merseyside, and Michal Trubini, 36, of Warrington, Cheshire.
A jury at the Old Bailey deliberated for more than 48 hours but was unable to reach verdicts on any of the defendants. The judge, Mrs Justice McGowan, discharged the jurors after being told there was no prospect of them reaching any verdicts if given more time.
The end of the trial means that Renshaw’s conviction for sexually grooming young boys can be reported for the first time.
Last June he was jailed for 16 Target: Labour’s Rosie Cooper months at Preston Crown Court after being found guilty of four counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
He also received a three-year sentence two months earlier after a different jury at the same court found him guilty of stirring up racial hatred by calling for the genocide of the Jewish people.
Renshaw, the former leader of the British National Party’s youth wing, set up two fake Facebook profiles and contacted the boys, aged 13 and 14, between February 2016 and January 2017.
Communicating via the Facebook Messenger app, he boasted Preparations to kill: Renshaw to the youngsters that he was rich, could give them jobs and offered one of them £300 to spend the night with him.
He also requested intimate photographs of the pair before one of the boys reported the messages.
Investigations led to the seizure of two BlackBerry phones from Renshaw’s former family home in Blackpool. Another two phones belonging to him were later recovered and they showed evidence of searches for gay pornography.
When interviewed, he told police he was heterosexual and a virgin who did not believe in sex outside of marriage, and viewed homosexuality as ‘u ‘ unnatural’. He went on to blame the police for putting material on his phone as part of ‘a vicious, malicious attack to put me in prison and to ostracise me from the nationalist movement’.
At his trial he changed his mind and said he believed that antiextremism group Hope Not Hate had hacked the phones, claiming: ‘They are obsessed with me.’
Mr Mullen, the whistleblower who scuppered his plans to kill Miss Cooper, was an informant for Hope Not Hate.
Renshaw unveiled his plan to kill Miss Cooper, the MP for West Lancashire, at the Friar Penketh pub in Warrington on July 1, 2017, when Mr Mullen was present. A former neo-Nazi who was sickened by the violent plans of some of his associates, Mr Mullen was granted immunity from prosecution.
He told jurors: ‘He [Renshaw] said he would kill her, then try to take some hostages to lure the police officer that was investigating him to try to kill her because she was the reason behind it all.
‘He was going on about, police … making him out to be a paedophile.’ Renshaw said he aimed to avoid prison by committing ‘suicide by cop’, forcing them to shoot him while wearing a fake suicide vest.
After the meeting, Mr Mullen, from Widnes, Cheshire, reported the threat to Hope Not Hate and Renshaw was arrested. The 19inch gladius sword, modelled on the weapons carried by Roman legionnaires, was found after a search of a relative’s house.
Renshaw first came to notoriety in 2014 when he posted a Facebook message saying he might have to disown his dog Derek because he feared it was gay.
He studied economics and politics at Manchester Metropolitan University but was asked to leave because of his far-Right activism.
He spent years in the BNP, appearing on its posters, in videos, and as a speaker at conferences.
After the trial, Miss Cooper called for more action to ‘protect democracy’ and ensure MPs are not put off doing their jobs because of safety fears.
She said: ‘I was to be murdered to send a message to the state. Our way of life, our democracy and our freedoms are being attacked by the likes of Renshaw.’
National Action is the first extreme Right-wing group to be banned since the Second World War. At its height, it had a membership of up to 100 mainly young men drawn from universities. In December 2016 it was banned for supporting the killing of Mrs Cox.
‘They are obsessed with me’ ‘He said he would kill her’