Suspect In MP Killing Described As Quiet, Polite And Reserved
Helen Pidd North of England editor
Thursday 16 June 2016 15.06 EDT Last modified on Thursday 16 June 2016 15.19 EDT
Jo Cox is believed to have been gunned down by her own constituent, a jobbing gardener little known beyond the Yorkshire estate on which he lived.
But police were last night probing claims that the suspect, named locally as Thomas Mair, 52, had dangerous political affiliations, following witness accounts that he shouted “Britain first” as he launched the fatal assault on Thursday afternoon.
Mair had been registered as living on the Fieldhead estate in Birstall for at least 40 years, but his neighbours told the Guardian they knew little about the reserved man they knew as “Tommy”.
They said he was quiet and polite, volunteering to do their gardens and offering horticultural tips as he passed down Lowood Lane on his regular strolls into Birstall to use the computers at the library, where Cox was killed on Thursday.
Locals thought he didn’t work but volunteered for various causes. It is also believed he had suffered mental health problems, and was quoted as praising a particular passage of care he had undertaken in the past.
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