Trial date set for man accused of murdering Jo Cox
The man accused of the terror-related murder of Jo Cox will go on trial in the autumn.
The man accused of the terror-related murder of Jo Cox will go on trial in the autumn.
Thomas Mair, 52, is accused of shooting and stabbing the 41-year-old Labour MP outside her constituency surgery in Birstall a week ago today.
He is charged with murder, grievous bodily harm, possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and possession of an offensive weapon.
He appeared at the Old Bailey via video link from top security Belmarsh jail amid a list of terror-related cases to be heard by Mr Justice Saunders.
The senior judge set a provisional timetable with a trial fixed to start on November 14.
Another hearing will take place on September 19 at the Old Bailey, with a plea hearing pencilled in on October 4. The trial will be heard before a High Court judge and is likely to be at the Old Bailey.
Mair, from Birstall, whose case is being handled under the "terrorism protocol'', spoke only to confirm his name.
At a magistrates' hearing last week he gave it as Death to traitors, freedom for Britain.''
Throughout the hearing, he sat with his head bowed, taking notes, and made no reaction as his lawyer Cairns Nelson QC discussed his case with prosecutor Mark Dawson and the judge.
It comes the day after Jo's widower Brendan and their two young children marked what would have been her 42nd birthday.
At the Commons event, they heard Prime Minister David Cameron praise Mrs Cox as "a voice of compassion whose irrepressible spirit and boundless energy lit up the lives of all who knew her''.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said that, with her death, British society had lost "one of our very best''.