Thomas Mair: The shy loner who became Jo Cox's deranged, far right-obsessed killer

Thomas Mair, the man found guilty of murdering Labour MP Jo Cox, has been described as a loner with links to far-right groups that dated back almost 30 years.

The far-right terrorist killed the Batley and Spen MP after she attended a constituency surgery on June 16, only a week before the referendum on European Union membership was held.

But his dedication to far-right extremism became apparent as he shouted phrases such as ‘put Britain first’ as he launched the chilling attack on Mrs Cox.

Now, it can be revealed that police found extreme memorabilia and books after raiding Mair’s home, before it later emerged that he had links with international far right groups dating back to the 1990s.

He lived in a unremarkable semi-detached home in Birstall, west Yorkshire, for more than 40 years, but had been on his own for the past 20 years following the death of his grandmother.

Mair’s neighbour Diana Peters described him as a quiet but pleasant man – and said she had seen no signs of racism after he previously told her that he was teaching English as a second language to the local Asian community.

‘He did gardening for neighbours. You couldn’t ask for a more pleasant neighbour.

‘I never ever saw him lose his temper. He never had a visitor that I’m aware of, doesn’t have friends; nobody ever comes to the house’, she recalled.

But it is a far cry from the hardcore evidence of far-right extremism that police found when they raided his home.

A gold Third Reich eagle ornament with a Swastika emblazoned on it, a large collection of far-right books and magazines and a press cutting on Norwegian mass killer Anders Breivik, were just a few of the chilling items found in Mr Mair’s council house.

Other items recovered by police included a dossier on Mrs Cox and her political history, while searches on computers seized from libraries in Birstall and Batley showed Mair had used them to look for far-right material and information on Mrs Cox and .22 rifles.

A US civil rights group, the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC), based in Alabama, also claimed it had obtained records that proved Mr Mair’s links with the neo-Nazi organisation National Alliance (NA), dating back to 1999.

Most chilling of all, however, was an internet search for the phrases ‘lying in state’, ‘lying in repose’, ‘coffins’ and ‘pauper’s funeral’ – conducted a day before he murdered Mrs Cox.

Mair is also known to have suffered extensive mental health problems, and often scrubbed himself obsessively with Brillo pads.

But he did not use his mental health as a defence during the trial, and gave no evidence at all before the verdict was announced earlier today.

He has been handed a life sentence, and it is probable that he will never be released.