Jo Cox trial: Officer `rugby tackled` murder suspect Thomas Mair after shooting
A police officer described how he rugby-tackled the man suspected of murdering MP Jo Cox to the ground shortly after the alleged killing.
Nov 17, 2016
By Nick Hudson
A police officer described how he rugby-tackled the man suspected of murdering MP Jo Cox to the ground shortly after the alleged killing.
Police Constable Craig Nicholls said he and a colleague, PC Jonathan Wright, knew the MP for Batley and Spen had been shot and stabbed as they were deployed in search of the killer.
They spotted Thomas Mair, 53, wearing a black baseball cap and clutching a black hold-all, walking in the Leeds Road area of Birstall, and believed he was the man they were looking for.
I said to PC Wright Is that him?, PC Nicholls told the Old Bailey at the `terror-related` murder trial of unemployed gardener Mair.
We drove past him initially, I spun the police vehicle round and at that point the male had disappeared.
PC Nicholls said they followed him around a corner into a cul-de-sac, and PC Wright leaned out of the window to tell the man to drop his bag and put his hands up.
In his right hand he had a black hold-all and in his left hand he had something which was black which I honestly couldnt tell you what it was, said the officer.
I knew a firearm had been discharged and somebody had been stabbed.
PC Wright told the man to drop the bag repeatedly, the court heard, and eventually the man did put it on the ground.
He turned around and put his hands in his pocket, I just remember seeing loose change falling out of his pocket, said PC Nicholls.
At that point he put his arms out by his sides, then he said `its me`.
We both ran towards the male as we started running towards him hes gone to put his hands down the front of his shirt.
We rugby-tackled him to the ground. We didnt have a conversation at all, it just happened.
The court heard Mair banged his head on the ground when tackled, and was bleeding afterwards.
PC Nicholls added after he had been arrested and cautioned, Mair was silent but later told the officer: Im a political activist.
He is alleged to have admitted he had a knife and a gun in his hold-all. He also dropped a plastic bag of bullets on the ground when he emptied his pockets.
However, Mair claims he stayed completely silent when he was arrested, and did not claim to be a political activist.
Prosecutor Richard Whittam QC said the dynamic arrest happened at around 1.25pm on June 16, as paramedics were making desperate attempts to save Mrs Coxs life.
She had been stabbed a total of 15 times just before 1pm and shot three times as she arrived at a constituency surgery in Market Street, Birstall.
Mair is accused of the “cowardly” murder for political reasons, saying Britain First repeatedly as he attacked the junior MP.
It is said he researched far right political groups on the internet, including the Ku Klux Klan and Nazis, in the days before the attack, and had looked up information on Mrs Cox and fellow Yorkshire and former Foreign Secretary MP William Hague.
Mr Whittam told the jury the killing happened a week before the EU Referendum, when Mrs Cox had been a vocal in her support of the Remain camp.
The trial, which was delayed on Tuesday (November 15) caught up in the prison officers` day of action went on to hear that Mrs Cox had tried to defend her aides as she came under attack, telling them `let him hurt me, don`t let him hurt you`.
Sandra Major, Mrs Cox`s senior caseworker, who was in a car with the MP before the attack, tol