An alleged far right extremist accused of murdering Labour MP Jo Cox has opted not to give evidence in his defence.

Thomas Mair, 53, allegedly shot and stabbed the mother-of-two as she arrived at Birstall library for a surgery on the afternoon of June 16 - a week before the EU referendum.

The court has heard Mair shouted "Britain first" during the brutal attack, had a stash of neo-Nazi material at his home in the West Yorkshire town and had collected a dossier on his 41-year-old Remain campaigning MP.

At the conclusion of the prosecution case, his lawyer Simon Russell Flint, QC, told the Old Bailey trial that the defendant would not be going into the witness box.

He said he called no evidence on behalf of Mair.

Mair denies Mrs Cox's murder, possession of a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence and possession of an offensive weapon - a dagger.

He also pleads not guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent to pensioner Bernard Kenny when he tried to stop the attack on Mrs Cox.

Trial judge Mr Justice Wilkie told the jury that they could draw inferences from Mair's silence.

In his closing speech, Richard Whittam QC told of the "sheer barbarity" of Mrs Cox's death.

He told jurors: "At 13.48 on the 16th of June in Market Street outside the public library in Birstall, the democratically elected MP for Batley and Spen, Jo Cox, was murdered as she carried out her duties on behalf of her electorate.

"Constituents were waiting to speak to her in the library.

"The sheer barbarity of her murder and the utter cowardice of her murder bring the two extremities of humanity face to face."

Mrs Cox was a hard-working MP and mother of two young children.

Mr Whittam said her attack "brought out the best of the people who were with her" - the two members of staff and Birstall residents who came to her aid.

They came from all walks of life, he said, including a taxi driver and a 77-year-old man who was wounded as he tried to intervene.

Mr Whittam had suggested in his opening address that Mair was "cowardly".

He told jurors: "Now you have heard the evidence you may have no doubt that it was."

Despite having the "element of surprise", Mair failed in his first attempt and came back to shoot and stab Mrs Cox once more, the court heard.

Mr Whittam said: "Perhaps he underestimated Jo Cox's tenacity and courage."

He said that all the evidence "compellingly establishes Thomas Mair was her murderer".

Mr Whittam went on to say it was fitting that the case had been held before another woman - whose statue holding the scales of justice adorns the Old Bailey.

At the conclusion of the evidence, the scales were "weighted only one way", he said.

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