MP had her head in her hands as she was shot dead by extremist
Murdered MP Jo Cox was covering her face with her hands as she was shot in the head by a right-wing extremist, a court heard.
Pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd detailed the 15 stab wounds and three gunshot injuries said to have been inflicted by Thomas Mair, 53.
He is alleged to have killed the Labour MP for Batley and Spen on 16 June as she made her way to a constituency surgery at Birstall library, in West Yorkshire.
The pathologist explained how two bullets hit the 41-year-old mother-of-two in the head, while a third was recovered from her chest.
She also had ‘through and through’ gunshot injuries to her hands that could have been caused by any of the three bullets, the Old Bailey heard.
But Dr Shepherd said: ‘I think it makes more sense that the hands were up covering the face and the bullet has gone through the left finger, the right hand and into the head.’
He told jurors: ‘I concluded Jo Cox had died as a result of multiple stab and gunshot wounds.’
The pathologist said Mrs Cox received ‘multiple stab wounds to the back, from and left side of her chest’.
‘Those stab wounds had penetrated her heart, left lung, stomach and liver,’ he continued.
Dr Shepherd said nicks to the ribs indicated the wounds had been inflicted with ‘moderate to severe force’.
Dr Ben Raynor told how medics had desperately tried to save Mrs Cox’s life.
He arrived on the scene to find Mrs Cox being stretchered into the back of an ambulance.
‘I made the decision to open the patient’s chest to see if there was anything I could do to help her,’ he said.
‘I knew with no intervention the patient would definitely die.’
The medic said in a statement he performed an emergency thoracotomy but couldn’t get her heart to respond while working on her for around 20 minutes.
‘Everyone agreed we had done everything we possibly could to save the patient, but we had been unsuccessful,’ he continued, adding that he pronounced Mrs Cox dead at 1.48pm on 16 June.
Mrs Cox, a ‘Remain’ supporter, was killed just a week before the EU referendum.
A 78-year-old, Bernard Carter Kenny, who bravely risked his own life in a bid to save Mrs Cox was also stabbed once by Mair, it is claimed.
The court has heard in the weeks before the alleged attacks Mair researched Nazis, the Klux Klan and Tory MP Ian Gow – the last serving MP to be murdered when he was blown up by the IRA.
He also searched the internet for Jo Cox, William Hague – another ‘Remain’ supporting Yorkshire MP – assassinations and shootings, jurors have heard.
Mair is alleged to have had a political or ideological motive for murdering Mrs Cox.
Mair, of (86) Lowood Lane, Field Head Estate, Birstall, denies murder, inflicting GBH with intent, possession of a firearm and possession of a dagger, and the trial continues.
