An alleged member of the banned far-Right group National Action group has admitted plotting to kill a Labour MP.
Jack Renshaw, 23, of Skelmersdale, Lancashire, pleaded guilty to preparing acts of terrorism by plotting to murder MP Rosie Cooper with a Roman-style Gladius knife last summer.
Renshaw also admitted bragging to a friend that he would kill serving policewoman Victoria Henderson.
Alleged National Action member Jack Renshaw has admitted plotting to murder a Labour MP
Renshaw (pictured, left, in a court sketch) saw Labour MP Rosie Cooper (right) as a target because of her perceived support for immigration, the court heard
Renshaw is on trial alongside Christopher Lythgoe, 32, from Warrington, who denies giving Renshaw permission to murder the West Lancashire MP on behalf ofNational Action on July 1 last year.
Prosecutor Duncan Atkinson QC said: ‘This case concerns these defendants and their support for, involvement in and membership of the proscribed racist neo-Nazi group National Action, and in particular violent actions that one of the defendants, Jack Renshaw, was preparing to undertake in support of the objectives of the group with the blessing of another defendant, Christopher Lyhtgoe, which concerned politically and racially motivated murder.
‘National Action had, since 2013, engaged in a campaign of virulently racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic propaganda through which it sought to stir up a violent “race war” against ethnic minorities and others it perceived as “race traitors”.’
The prosecutor added: ‘Hostile to democracy and the British state, National Action actively sought to recruit and radicalise young people through the violent imagery and hate-filled language of its social media messages, its provocative street demonstrations and intimidation of local communities.
‘It was such activities, culminating in its support for the murder of the MP for Batley, Jo Cox, that led to its proscription – meaning that the Secretary of State considered it to be an organisation concerned in committing, participating in and promoting terrorism, and therefore needed to be proscribed – to be banned.’
Renshaw and Lythgoe appear in court alongside Garron Helm, 24, of Seaforth, Merseyside, Matthew Hankinson, 24, of Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside, Andrew Clarke, 33, and Michal Trubini, 35, both of Warrington – who all deny membership of the banned far-right group.
Garron Helm, Michal Trubini, Andrew Clarke, Matthew Hankinson and Christopher Lythgoe are also on trial over the alleged plot. They deny the charges
Earlier this morning, judge Mr Justice Jay directed the jury to deliver a formal guilty verdict on the first two charges Renshaw faces.
National Action was declared a terror group by the Home Secretary on 16 December 2016.
Lythgoe, of Warrington; Helm, of Helm, Merseyside; Hankinsin, of Newton Le Willows, Merseyside; Clarke, of Liverpool and Trubini, of Warrington, Cheshire all deny belonging to a proscribed organisation.
Lythgoe faces a further count of encouraging another to commit an offence. The trial continues.
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