Thomas Mair, a reclusive neo-Nazi, was convicted in an English court Wednesday in the murder earlier this year of Jo Cox, a member of Parliament (MP), the Financial Times reported.
Mr. Mair was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for the fatal June 16 shooting and stabbing outside a constituency surgery, a form of town hall where voters discuss issues of concern with their MP. The Financial Times said the jury returned the unanimous verdict after only 90 minutes of deliberation.
Witnesses reported Mr. Mair yelled, “Britain first, keep Britain independent, this is for Britain,” while fatally attacking Cox, and, in his first court appearance he told the court, “Death to traitors, freedom for Britain,” when asked to state his name, the Times reported.
A staunch defender of Britain remaining in the European Union, Cox’s assassination occurred exactly one week before the Brexit referendum. On Monday, Belgian officials announced they would rename a street in Brussels in the late Labour MP’s honor, according to the London Daily Telegraph.
“You are no patriot,” the presiding judge said to Mr. Mair at sentencing, according to the Financial Times. “By your action you have betrayed the quintessence of our country: its adherence to parliamentary democracy.”
Cox was the first MP to be killed in office since 1990, when an Irish Republican Army bombing claimed the life of Conservative MP Ian Gow, a close associate of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
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