Jo Cox verdict

[CoolCarrie]

My heart goes out to Jo Cox children, husband and family.
They have behaved with grace and dignity.

They have indeed. The Judge's sentencing remarks are well worth a read. www.judiciary.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/sentencing-remarks-r-v-thomas-mair.pdf

Thank you for that link, Gaspode. A couple of extracts:

To her family, friends and colleagues Jo Cox was a wonderful mother, daughter, sister, partner, and companion, her generosity of spirit evident in the selfless concern she had for others even when facing a violent death. Their loss, caused by your actions, is and will be, almost unbearable.

But because she was a Member of Parliament, the reason you murdered her, your crime has an additional dimension which calls for particularly severe punishment.

She was just 41. before being elected as an MP she had already demonstrated herself to be a credit to herself, her community, and her country in the work she performed for Oxfam and other organisations devoting herself to seeking to better the lot of those less fortunate than her.
...
In the true meaning of the word she was a patriot.

You affect to be a patriot. The words you uttered repeatedly when you killed her give lip service to that concept. Those sentiments can be legitimate and can have resonance but in your mouth, allied to your actions, they are tainted and made toxic.

It is clear from your internet and other researches that your inspiration is not love of country or your fellow citizens, it is an admiration for Nazism, and similar anti democratic white supremacist creeds where democracy and political persuasion are supplanted by violence towards and intimidation of opponents and those who, in whatever ways, are thought to be different and, for that reason, open to persecution.

Our parents’ generation made huge sacrifices to defeat those ideas and values in the Second World War. What you did, and your admiration for those views which informed your crime, betrays the sacrifices of that generation.

You are no patriot. By your actions you have betrayed the quintessence of our country, its adherence to parliamentary democracy.

There's also a statement from her family:
www.jocoxfoundation.org/familyimpactstatement

Well worth reading it all, but again here are extracts:

We are here because we want to tell you about Jo. Who she was and what she meant to us. You have heard so much about her death, we’d like to tell you just a little about her life.

Jo was interested in everyone. Driven not by her ego but by her desire to help. Connected deeply to her community and proud of her country, but interested in the world. Connected to her roots but not defined by them. Earnestly committed to making the world a better place but with an easy smile and a devilish sense of fun.
...
She especially loved talking at schools. I often teased her about the lack of votes in schools to which she’d reply it’s not about votes, it’s about getting kids to know that they can do anything they set their minds to.
...
The killing of Jo was in my view a political act, an act of terrorism - but in the history of such acts it was perhaps the most incompetent and self-defeating. An act driven by hatred which instead has created an outpouring of love. An act designed to drive communities apart which has instead pulled them together. An act designed to silence a voice which instead has allowed millions of others to hear it.

Jo is no longer with us, but her love, her example and her values live on. For the rest of our lives we will not lament how unlucky we were to have her taken from us, but how unbelievably lucky we were to have her in our lives for so long.

As a much-loved friend, daughter, sister, auntie, wife and mum, Jo lit up our lives. And she still does.

Whole life tariff? Good.

He'll die in prison, and quite right too. The whole case makes me want to weep.

I see that he wanted to make a statement before he was sentenced, but the judge said no, he'd had his chance to speak and explain himself during the trial, and hadn't taken it. Well done that judge.

The judge was spot on there. You can imagine the crap he would have come out with, using the court as a platform for his hatred.

Excellent decision by the judge. I hope the killer never gets released.

I've been following this and am relieved by the verdict and the sentence - not that there was any chance of him being found not guilty but I'm glad he got a whole life tariff.

The judge made the right call in not allowing him to speak. The Jo's family were very gracious and dignified - I don't know if I could be in their position.

Sorry, I meant Jo Cox's family.

Good.

Thank goodness.
If ever a whole life tariff was appropriate it's here.

I'm glad the judge didn't give him a voice.
I hope he finds someone even more vile to share a very small cell with.

I wouldn't be sad if he got a cellmate called big Shirley and he spent every night biting his pillow in fear..

Fucking creature.

I'm so glad he wasn't given a voice.
He I will forget.
Jo Cox will live on. Her compassion and determination to make the world a better place will live on.
Thinking of her family and friends. So unutterably sad.

Right call by the judge. No way should he be able to make speeches. He should be forgotten in a cell. I want to never hear about him again.

The Yorkshire Evening Post have chosen to put Jo Cox in her wedding gown on their front page and not him. I hope other papers do the same.

I am also glad that he wasn't given a voice in court. I feel completely empty regarding the verdict. It was the right decision, but nothing will bring Jo back.

I was at university with Jo, she was very close to a good friend of mine. Even at a distance, I am still struggling to get my head around what happened. I cannot imagine how much her family must be suffering, but I am completely in awe of their strength, their grace and their compassion. Their amazing reaction has been the best possible response to the act of hatred that killed Jo - I think she would be proud.

Very ambivalent.
Waste of money keeping him in a prison cell until he dies. Money that can be better spend saving life than a living death.

I have not been following the trial as it was pretty much a foregon conclusion. Reports say he chose not to defend himself. In this context I am very concerned at comments that the judge didn't allow him to speak. Not that I want to hear him, but that I am concerned about the message it sends that some people should be silenced.

I observe that when people are silenced and shouted down they become frustrated. Often they are not educated enough to argue in the written word and debate and thus in frustration they become resentful. It is easy to become isolated. What do they have to loose when no one listens? There seems to be a constant pattern to similar events. The disafectd teenage muslim going to fight for their ideal in Syria, or suicide bombing in the UK, the Reds brigades, the Uni bomber, the ALF, that chap who murdered the South African president in the Parliament, All of these seem to be people outside the margins who develop a sense no one listens and then go to extreems.

I fear this will repeat istelf.

Reports say he chose not to defend himself. In this context I am very concerned at comments that the judge didn't allow him to speak. Not that I want to hear him, but that I am concerned about the message it sends that some people should be silenced.

He wasn't silenced. He had the opportunity to speak in court. He had the opportunity to defend his actions. He chose not to take that opportunity, presumably because he did not want his words to be judged. Why should he then be given a platform to spout his hatred after the verdict, when he no longer had anything to lose?

It was absolutely the right decision to deny him the opportunity to speak at that point. Why should Jo's family have to listen to him promoting his message of hatred when he had consistently refused to offer any explanation of his actions throughout the trial?

I hope he does die in prison.
I agree with the tenor of the judge's remarks - the "man" was no patriot. But, even if he was mentally ill, he is clearly a danger to people, so he shouldn't be let out.

Judging by what the police found in his house after he was arrested, he had spent a lot of time reading about Anders Breivik, who was given a chance to speak at his trial and took the opportunity to spout a lot of dreadful bile which showed he had no remorse at all over his actions. I imagine this sad apology for a human being hoped to do likewise. By pleading not guilty, he forced the family and all the witnesses to sit through days and days of extremely distressing evidence. He then chose to say nothing at all about what he did or why he did it, at the appropriate time, i.e. during the trial. His defence presented no evidence at all to justify that plea of not guilty. Why on earth should he then have been given a chance to speak before he was sentenced?

ItsNotEasy I disagree with you so much. He had occasions to "have a voice". He was interviewed by police and he refused to say a single word! He had a chance to enter the witness stand, he refused, despite the Judge telling him it may affect the verdict, he still refused.

Why should he then be given a platform after the judicial process has taken place? After sentencing a criminal is "taken down" Why the heck should this evil man be treated any different?

The hateful behaviour of this person contrasts so much with the family of Jo Cox. They and their words are full of love and dignity.

Biscuit,

Fair comment, he chose to not defend himself during the process. I do not make claims to know his state of mind but I can speculate he felt he would be manipulated by cross examination. Or that everything he said would be mis-reported so he thought to offer his comment after due process. In that he was wrong. The comments on Reuters seem to show he was a very sad and pathetic lonely person. That is not to excuse his behaviour, but understand it.

What worries me is the next sad individual will see him being silenced and come to the conclusion that no one is allowed a voice that does not agree with the "right on" message and thus begin to loose reason and start the journey towards violence.

I hope we can agree there has been a history of disaffected people taking to violence. I suggest it matters not what their background may be. Nor does it matter what political/religious/racial ideology they follow. Let us be honest, there have been communist, religious, fascist and environmental attacks in significant numbers. In many many cases the individuals concerned were misfits to the rest of society just like this one.

Although it may be unpalatable, I suggest what matters is how to diffuse the anger and alienation such people have and find them a way to let them express themselves and be heard so they feel they have a voice and choose to not commit murder.

Otherwise we are simply waiting for the next atrocity.

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