Thomas Mair (murderer)

Thomas Mair
File:SWNS-Thomas-Mair.jpg
Born	Thomas Alexander Mair (1963-08-12) 12 August 1963 Kilmarnock, Scotland
Other names	Tommy Mair
Citizenship	British
Occupation	Gardener
Movement	Links to: British far-right Radical right in the United States Pro-apartheid movements in South Africa
Motive	Opposition to the European Union (Brexit campaign) Opposition to migration Political extremism
Criminal charge	Murder
Penalty	Life imprisonment with a whole life order
Details
Victims	Jo Cox
Date	16 June 2016 c. 12:53 p.m. (BST)
Location(s)	Birstall, West Yorkshire, England
Weapons	Weihrauch .22 bolt-action rifle
Date apprehended	16 June 2016

Thomas Alexander "Tommy" Mair (born 12 August 1963) is a British neo-Nazi, white supremacist who was convicted of the June 2016 murder of Jo Cox, a Labour Member of Parliament, in November 2016. Mair is known to have established links with far-right groups in the United States and South Africa. At the time of the murder, Mair was an unemployed gardener. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a whole life order for murdering Cox.

Early life and background

Thomas Alexander Mair was born in Kilmarnock, Scotland, on 12 August 1963. He was the elder of two sons born to Mary, a factory worker, and James Mair, a machine operator in the lace industry. After Mair's parents divorced, he, his brother and their mother moved to Birstall, a mill town 8 miles (13 km) south-west of Leeds. His mother married again and had another son.

Detective Superintendent Nick Wallen from West Yorkshire Police described Mair as a "loner in the truest sense of the word ... who never held down a job never had a girlfriend never any friends to speak of".

Mental illness

Mair has been described as exhibiting traits of mental illness, most notably obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). He was known to scrub himself with pan scourers, and his house was obsessively orderly. He had a persecution complex, believing "collaborators" – liberals, leftists and the mainstream media, who were "his greatest obsession" – to be the cause of the world's problems.

Mair had lived in Birstall for at least forty years and was described as polite and reserved. In 2010, Mair attended Pathways Day Centre for adults with mental health problems. He then began doing voluntary work and was interviewed by the Huddersfield Daily Examiner, telling the newspaper that volunteering had improved his mental health. Mair said: "I can honestly say it has done me more good than all the psychotherapy and medication in the world". The evening before killing Jo Cox, Mair visited an alternative therapy centre in Birstall seeking treatment for depression; he was told to return the next day for an appointment. However, Mair's health was not part of the defence case in the trial. After his arrest, he was examined by a psychiatrist who could find no evidence that his mental health was so poor that he was not responsible for his actions.

The focus on issues of mental illness has been criticised by some, such as left-wing writer Owen Jones, as undermining the alleged Mair's political motivations in his murder. Jones accused the media of double standards on Twitter, saying, "The coverage of Michael Adebowale - one of Lee Rigby's killers - did not focus on his history of mental illness. It focused on his ideology."

Links to far-right groups in the UK and Europe

Although he had links with the National Front in the 1990s, and more recently was seen at a English Defence League rally, both anti-fascists and supporters of various far-right organisations deny that Mair had ever "crossed their radar". Mair was particularly fascinated by Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Breivik, and kept newspaper clippings about the case.

Todd Blodgett, an American former far-right activist, told the SPLC that in May 2000 (when Blodgett was working as a paid informant for the FBI), Mair attended a gathering of American white supremacists in London that was convened by National Alliance head William Luther Pierce and arranged by another member of the British far-right, Mark Cotterill. According to Blodgett, the group of 15 to 20 people included Stephen Cartwright and Richard Barnbrook, and the group discussed how to expand American white power music (such as that promoted by Resistance Records, which Pierce had recently purchased) into Europe. Blodgett described Mair as quiet, self-educated, well-mannered, and loosely affiliated with the Leeds chapter of the National Alliance. According to Blodgett, Mair expressed racist and antisemitic views, was a Holocaust denier, and admired the neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver.

Mair was a frequent user of his local library's computers to research matters such as the British National Party, white supremacism, Nazism, the Ku Klux Klan, Waffen SS, Israel, public shooting, serial killers and matricide, as well as the Wikipedia page of Ian Gow, the last MP to be murdered by a Provisional IRA car bomb, and anti-Brexit MP William Hague.

National Action, a neo-Nazi organisation within the United Kingdom with 60–100 members nationwide, has repeatedly celebrated Mair. It has altered its listing on Google to state: "Death to traitors, freedom for Britain!" (the cry Mair made when asked of his name upon arrest), and is most active in Yorkshire. National Action has repeatedly posted inflammatory material, accusing Cox of being the "patron saint" of British Asian "grooming gangs", and has written in support of lone wolf terrorism by white supremacists in the UK. The North West Infidels have also said that Jo Cox "got what she deserved with her far-left extremist views. Promoting her race-mixing communism. Your white children and their white children have no hope or future with communist scum like Jo Cox". As a result of this material, National Action became a proscribed terrorist organisation under the Terrorism Act 2000, making it a criminal offence to support or be a member as of 16 December 2016.

Mair's cry of "freedom for Britain" was compared by the Socialist Worker to the rhetoric employed by Jayda Fransen of Britain First during the London election campaign of 2016. Fransen at that time said politicians guilty of "ruining our country" through support for immigration "will face the wrath of the Britain First movement, make no mistake about it! We will not rest until every traitor is punished for their crimes against our country. And by punished, I mean good old fashioned British justice at the end of a rope!" During Mair's trial, the court heard that he had shouted "Britain first!" during his attack on Cox; however, BF leader Paul Golding denied any connection with the murder of Jo Cox, saying that Britain First "would not condone actions like that", saying that "we do direct actions sometimes ... but this kind of thing is disgusting. It's an outrage. I hope the person who carried out this heinous crime will get what he deserves".

Despite the presence of several fringe far-right groups in West Yorkshire and identification with extremist political figures, Mair appeared to have made little effort to make contact or involvement with local individuals or groups of a like mind.

SA Patriot and the Springbok Club

According to The Daily Telegraph, a January 2006 blog post attributed to the group described Mair as "one of the earliest subscribers and supporters of SA Patriot", a far-right, pro-apartheid publication (renamed SA Patriot in Exile in 1991), and published at least two letters in the publication in the years 1991–1999. Mair wrote to the organisation in 1991 saying that:

I was most impressed by your publication and the insight it gives into the South African scene ... Meanwhile, you might be interested to know that the British media's propaganda offensive against South Africa continues relentlessly. Almost every "news" bulletin contains one item about South Africa which, needless to say, never fails to present Whites in the worse [sic] possible light ... The nationalist movement in the UK also continues to fight on against the odds. The murders of George Seawright and John McMichael in Ulster are an extreme example of what we are up against. Despite everything I still have faith that the White Race will prevail, both in Britain and in South Africa, but I fear that it's going to be a very long and very bloody struggle.

— Mair in 1991

In 1999, Mair wrote to the publication. In his letter, he spoke out against "'collaborators' in the White South African population" who were opposed to apartheid, saying that:

It was heartening to see that you are still carrying on the struggle ... I was glad you strongly condemned "collaborators" in the White South African population. In my opinion the greatest enemy of the old Apartheid system was not the ANC and the Black masses but White liberals and traitors.

— Mair in 1999

The Southern Poverty Law Center noted that, following the murder of Jo Cox in 2016, "Mair sounded a similar theme. Asked his name by the court, he responded with, 'Death to traitors, freedom for Britain.'" In 2006 the magazine's online newsletter asked for information on Mair's address as "recent correspondence sent to him was being returned".

Following Mair's arrest, the SA Patriot said:

It is true that a Mr Thomas A. Mair from Batley in Yorkshire subscribed to our magazine S.A Patriot when we were still published in South Africa itself. We can confirm therefore that we have never met Mr Mair, and apart from brief contact way back in the mid-1980s when he briefly subscribed to our magazine we have had no contact with him. All attempts to try to link him to our magazine during more recent years are therefore completely without foundation.

Mair also bought literature from the Springbok Club, a "small, sinister group of British-based South African and Zimbabwean exiles" that "regards itself as the shadow white government of South Africa". Alan Harvey, editor of the Springbok Club's official magazine, told The Guardian that Mair sent the group £5, "which would have been enough for about five issues" of the magazine.

Copeland trial and the National Alliance

The Guardian refers to Mair as "an extremely low burner" who "appears to have fantasised a 'collaborator' for more than 17 years, drawing inspiration from" David Copeland.

David Copeland, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic and admirer of William Luther Pierce (head of the National Alliance) was a source of great inspiration to Mair when he bombed Black British, South Asian and LGBT populations on a 13-day campaign in the hope of triggering a race war within the United Kingdom. 3 died and more than 140 injured, many losing limbs, and was arrested shortly after this final bombing of the Admiral Duncan.

10 days after Copeland's first court appearance, a consignment of goods from the National Alliance headquarters in the United States was being sent to Mair's home. According to a packing slip obtained by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Mair had bought numerous items from the organisation, including: manuals on the manufacturing of bombs and homemade pistols; 6 copies of Free Speech, a publication of the National Alliance; and a copy of Ich Kämpfe. Over the course of four years, he began to subscribe to Free Speech as well as Secret of the Runes and We Get Confessions. The SPLC released receipts indicating that, between 1999 and 2003, Mair had spent more than $620 buying publications from National Vanguard Books, the National Alliance's publishing arm. These included works on how to make improvised weapons, such as explosives and firearms". Mair "amassed a small library about the Nazis, German military history and white supremacy, which he kept in a bedroom at his home on a bookshelf topped by a gold-coloured Third Reich eagle with a swastika", including books on "Race Theory and Mate Selection Guidelines" and the Luftwaffe, as well as devices on how to construct bombs and explosives.

Brexit and murder of Jo Cox

Main article: Murder of Jo Cox

As a "passionate defender" of the European Union and immigration, Mair saw Jo Cox as "a legitimate target". He viewed the Labour MP as "one of 'the collaborators' [and] a traitor to his race", according to The Guardian.

Trial, conviction, and sentence

On 18 June, police announced that Mair had been charged with murder, grievous bodily harm, possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and possession of an offensive weapon. The same day, he appeared before Westminster Magistrates' Court and when asked to confirm his name said, "My name is death to traitors, freedom for Britain". He was asked to repeat what he had said, and did so; he also refused to give his age or address. His lawyers confirmed his name as Thomas Mair, and said there was no indication of what plea would be given. He was remanded in custody at Belmarsh Prison. Emma Arbuthnot, the Deputy Chief Magistrate presiding at the hearing added, "Bearing in mind the name he has just given, he ought to be seen by a psychiatrist".

On 20 June, a bail hearing took place at the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, the Old Bailey. Mair appeared by video link from Belmarsh Prison and spoke only to confirm his name as Thomas Mair. His lawyer said that Mair would not apply for bail, and the judge, Mr Justice Sweeney, remanded him in custody until a hearing to be held "under terrorism-related protocols" before Mr Justice Saunders. At that hearing, on 23 June, a provisional trial date was scheduled for 14 November, a preliminary hearing for 19 September and a plea hearing on 4 October. Saunders said the case would be handled as part of "the terrorism case management list" on which cases related to terrorism (as defined by the Terrorism Act 2000) are placed.

The prosecutor, from the counter-terrorism division of the Crown Prosecution Service, later told the court that a single-barrelled firearm was recovered from Mair at the time of his arrest. Mair had acquired a firearm, a German made Weihrauch .22 bolt-action rifle, from which the stock and most of the barrel had been removed. It was stolen from the boot of a sports utility vehicle in nearby Keighley in August 2015, although police do not know who directly stole the weapon. Mair had carried out online research into .22 ammunition, reading one page that offered an answer to the question: "Is a .22 round deadly enough to kill with one shot to a human's head?" He also bought a replica British army Second World War dagger.

At the September 2016 hearing, Mair's counsel said the defence would not advance a diminished responsibility argument based on medical evidence. At the hearing on 4 October 2016, Mair (appearing by video link) spoke to confirm his name but refused to enter a plea, prompting the judge, Mr Justice Wilkie, to enter not-guilty pleas on his behalf.

Mair's trial began at the Old Bailey on 14 November 2016. He made no attempt to defend himself during the seven-day trial. The court heard testimony that during the attack, Mair had cried out "This is for Britain" as well as "keep Britain independent" and "Britain first".

On 23 November 2016, Mair was convicted of Cox's murder, grievous bodily harm against Bernard Carter-Kenny, who was stabbed by Mair after trying to aid Cox, possession of a firearm with intent, and possession of a dagger. The jury took about 90 minutes to reach its verdict.

The same day, Mr Justice Wilkie sentenced Mair to life imprisonment. Wilkie said he had no doubt that Mair murdered Cox for the purpose of advancing a political, racial and ideological cause, namely that of violent white supremacism and exclusive nationalism most associated with Nazism and its modern forms. This made the case one of exceptionally high seriousness and accordingly he imposed a whole life term, meaning Mair would not become eligible for parole.

Response

In a statement to the BBC following the conviction of Mair, Cox's widower Brendan stated that he felt only pity for Mair, and expressed hope "that Jo's death will have meaning" in persuading people "that we hold more in common than that which divides us."

In The Times, David Aaronovitch asked why "some people – all of them pro-Brexit as it happens" were "so keen to dismiss the first (and accurate) reports of Mair's words?", claiming that such people "resisted because deep down they feared that aspects of the language or direction of the Brexit campaign they legitimately supported had emboldened extremism. While they themselves were in no way permissive of the act, might they in some way have been permissive of the motive? Or even of the mood?". In his article, Aaronovitch cited official Home Office figures regarding a rise in race hate crime. Aaronovitch's words were criticised by Peter Hitchens in the Mail On Sunday, who wrote: "let no Leftist propagandist try to smear me as an apologist for her killer ... But I am repelled and disturbed by the attempt to pretend that this deranged, muttering creep was in any way encouraged or licensed to kill a defenceless, brave young mother, by the campaign to leave the European Union". He retaliated by claiming that "A lot of very prominent people on the mainstream British Left, in politics and the media, have never properly apologised for their many years of sympathy with the Soviet cause. Even fewer have regretted their slurping admiration for the homicidal, torture-prone Castro regime in Cuba. Sick Leftist monster-worship of this kind is, amazingly, quite respectable."

Only two newspapers failed to feature a picture of Cox on their front pages as her murderer was arrested: the Financial Times (who instead focused on the first autumn statement from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Phillip Hammond) and the Daily Mail. The Mail was criticised for its focus on Mair's mental health and thoughts of matricide as opposed to Mair's extreme ideology. The paper also relegated its coverage of Mair's conviction to page 30 of its print edition, and also for its focus on the fact that Mair "may have murdered MP Jo Cox because he feared losing his home of 40 years to an immigrant family" – a story which was accused of normalising the xenophobia and leading to Cox's murder. LBC radio presenter James O'Brien accused the paper of double standards, saying that the Mail "has chosen to put the murder by a neo-Nazi of a serving British MP ... on page 30. I don't really understand why. Unless a murder by a neo-Nazi is less offensive to the sensibilities of the editor of this newspaper than a murder by a radical Islamist." O'Brien went on to say that, had the murder of Jo Cox been a Muslim, the story would be on the front page.