‘White Jihad’: Neo-Nazi Admits Plot To Hack Female Lawmaker To Death

A self-styled “white jihadi” planned to hack to death a British Member of Parliament to help stir up a violent race war, a court was told.

Jack Renshaw, 23, an alleged member of the banned neo-Nazi group National Action, bought a 19-inch Roman-style “Galdius” machete to kill the West Lancashire Labour MP, Rosie Cooper, in summer 2017.

Renshaw, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, pleaded guilty to preparing acts of terror and also admitted to making threats of kill a police detective who was investigating him for whipping up racial hatred.

Duncan Atkinson, QC, for the prosecution, said: “Renshaw’s plan had a more sophisticated dimension, in that its objective was not simply to make a political point, as he put it, to kill for National Action and white jihad, but to revenge himself on those he considered to be persecuting him and trying to send him to prison for a significant period.”

He added that National Action had, since 2013, been committed to stirring up a race war in Britain by disseminating “virulently racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic propaganda” and targeting perceived race traitors.

Renshaw is one of six men on trial who deny being in the group National Action.

The other accused are Christopher Lythgoe, 32, and Michal Trubini, 35, both from Warrington; Matthew Hankinson, 24, from Newton-le-Willows, Merseyside; Andrew Clarke, 33, from Prescot, Merseyside, and Garron Helm, 24, from Seaforth, Merseyside.

Renshaw bought the machete, offering “unprecedented piercing and slashing power at a bargain price.” After searching the internet about Ms. Cooper, who he considered to be pro-immigration, he researched how to cut the jugular artery and how long it would take to die from such a wound.

The plot to assassinate the politician was triggered after Renshaw was arrested for hate speeches that attacked Jews and argued that Britain should have fought alongside Hitler in World War II. On his arrest, police also recovered a cell phone that allegedly contained evidence of child sex grooming.

In a secret meeting at a pub with the fellow members of National Action, Renshaw allegedly said that after his killing spree he would commit "suicide by cop" by donning a fake bomb vest and would also make a video to say the attack had been done on behalf of National Action.

Renshaw’s plan was revealed when a disenchanted member of National Action contacted Hope Not Hape, an anti-extremist group, and police were informed of the plan to murder Ms. Cooper.