‘Let him hurt me, not you’: MP Cox’s selfless plea to her aides after attack

JO COX, the MP shot dead outside her surgery, tried to protect her staff in her last moments, shouting: “Let him hurt me. Don’t let him hurt you,” a court heard.

Giving evidence, her colleagues described the scene as the 41-year-old was stabbed 15 times and shot three times, including twice in the head, days before the EU referendum.

Thomas Mair, 53, of Birstall, West Yorks, denies murdering the Labour MP in June this year. He also denies grievous bodily harm with intent, possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and possession of an offensive weapon – a dagger.

Senior caseworker Sandra Major arrived at Birstall library with mother-oftwo Mrs Cox and personal assistant Fazila Aswat. Giving evidence at the Old Bailey, she told how she saw a man in her peripheral vision walking past them.

She said: “He had a gun in his hand. He raised his arm and shot her in the head. It was in the area of her temple.

“She fell backwards into the ground and there was blood pouring down her face. He was shouting something like ‘keep Britain independent’ or ‘British independence’,” she told jurors.

Ms Major added: “Fazila shouted: ‘Get away from us; she has two little kids.’ I was just screaming for help. I thought if some people came, he might go away. He was making motions towards us with the knife and Jo was lying in the road and she shouted out: ‘Get away, get away you two. Let him hurt me. Don’t let him hurt you.’

“He shot her twice more and then started stabbing her again. She was on the floor. She didn’t get up again.”

The court also heard from Ms Aswat, who said she had screamed for help as a knifeman stood over the MP.

Ms Aswat said she told the MP to run away between attacks but Mrs Cox replied: “Fazila, I can’t run. I’m hurt.”

Ms Aswat added: “Jo was in my arms. It was probably only two or three minutes before the ambulance arrived but it felt like a lifetime.”

Mr Mair also denies a charge of stabbing Bernard Carter-Kenny, 77, who tried to intervene to protect the MP. Mr Carter-Kenny, who gave his statement from Leeds General Infirmary, said he ran to the alleged killer and tried to “jump on his shoulders”.

“Just as I got short of him he turned around and saw me,” he said. “He shoved the knife in and it hit me in the stomach.”

Speaking in court yesterday, West Yorkshire Pcs Craig Nicholls and Jonathan Wright said Mr Mair had an EU referendum leaflet, a sawn-off .22 rifle, live ammunition and a dagger-style knife in his bag when he was arrested.

The trial continues.