Paedophile gives Nazi salute as he’s jailed for MP murder plot
A WHITE supremacist paedophile who plotted to hack Labour MP Rosie Cooper to death to emulate Jo Cox’s murder made a Nazi salute as he was jailed for life yesterday.
Jack Renshaw, 23, bought a 19inch ‘Gladius Machete’ replica Roman sword and told comrades at the banned right-wing group National Action he would carry out a ‘white jihad’ attack on the MP.
He drunkenly confided to followers in a Warrington pub that he planned to hack Miss Cooper to death and kill a female detective who was investigating his grooming of young boys.
Renshaw, the group’s former spokesman, googled ‘ how long to die after jugular cut’. As he planned the attack on the MP he thought would be ‘easy to get to’, he researched Miss Cooper’s schedule and public appearances.
His plan was to slash her throat and take hostages, demanding to speak to Detective Constable Victoria Henderson so that he could lure her into a deadly ambush.
But the plot was scuppered by an undercover whistleblower Robbie Mullen, who was at the gathering at the pub in July 2017 – a year after the murder of Labour MP Jo Cox by another Right-wing extremist.
Yesterday, Renshaw, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, was ordered by a judge at the Old Bailey to serve a minimum term of 20 years after he admitted making preparations to kill Miss Cooper and making a threat to kill DC Henderson.
Mrs Justice McGowan said: ‘To kill a Member of Parliament because of their political allegiance is an attempt to damage our entire democracy.’
She told him: ‘You praised the murder of Jo Cox in tweets and posts in June 2017 and, in some bizarre way, you saw this as a commendable act and set out to replicate that behaviour.
‘Your perverted view of history and current politics has caused you to believe it is right to demonise groups simply because they are different from you.’
She said the women had shown ‘dignity and bravery,’ adding: ‘You have not defeated them.’
As Renshaw was led to the cells, he defiantly gave a Nazi salute to cheers from supporters in the public gallery, who shouted: ‘We’re with you, Jack.’
After the hearing, Miss Cooper called for more action to ‘protect democracy’ and ensure MPs were not put off doing their jobs because of safety fears. In a victim impact statement, she likened the plot to ‘something out of a horror movie’.
The West Lancashire MP told how she had been forced to abandon her ‘open-door policy’ to constituents after the plot. Events she attends are now ‘planned and vetted’ with two officers accompanying her.
‘ My friends and family implored me to resign because no job is worth it. But that would allow tyranny to prevail,’ the MP said.
Concern around security for MPs has grown following Mrs Cox’s murder and a spate of
terror attacks. In January, more than 50 MPs wrote to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner to express ‘serious concerns’ about the ‘deteriorating public order and security situation’ outside Parliament.
Renshaw’s plot emerged at a meeting with the leader of National Action, which was banned by the Government after associating Brexit with killing MPs. The former leader of the British National Party’s youth wing set up two fake Facebook profiles to groom boys aged 13 and 14 between February 2016 and January 2017.
He was arrested in January 2017 for stirring up racial hatred in relation to two speeches he made, for which he was later jailed for three years.
As a part of the investigation, his phone was examined by DC Henderson who discovered evidence of Renshaw’s grooming.
Will Chatterton, head of investigations for counter-terrorism policing in the North West, described Renshaw’s Nazi salute in court as a ‘vile and disrespectful act which demonstrates the fact that he’s a dangerous individual who still holds appalling and extreme views’.
‘Perverted view of history’