Neo-Nazi Jack Renshaw who wanted to assassinate M.P. with sword is a paedophile

Renshaw, 23, bought a 19-inch (48cm) Gladius knife (a Roman short sword) to kill West Lancashire M.P. Rosie Cooper and exact revenge on a female police officer who was investigating him for child sex offences.

The plan was scuppered by whistle-blower Robbie Mullen, who was at a meeting in a pub when Renshaw announced that he was going to kill Ms Cooper in July 2017 and reported the threat to Hope not hate.

The self-confessed Nazi claimed anti-fascist group Hope Not Hate wanted to discredit him and maliciously hacked his mobile phones to send messages of a sexual nature to two teenage boys.

But jurors at Preston Crown Court did not believe him and convicted him of four counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Renshaw, from Skelmersdale, Lancashire, also received a three-year prison sentence two months earlier when he was found guilty by a different jury at the same court of stirring up racial hatred after he called for the genocide of Jewish people.

Both cases can be fully reported following the end of proceedings he faced at the Old Bailey where a jury was unable to reach a verdict on a charge that he was a member of banned far-right group National Action.

The former leader of the British National Party youth wing set up two fake Facebook profiles and contacted the boys, aged 13 and 14, between February 2016 and January 2017.

Communicating via the Facebook Messenger app, Renshaw boasted to the youngsters that he was rich, could give them jobs and offered one of them £300 to spend the night with him.

He also requested intimate photographs of the pair before one of the boys reported the messages to his tutor and the police were contacted.

Investigations led to the seizure of two BlackBerry phones from Renshaw's then family address in Blackpool, Lancashire.

Much of the internet history on the phones had been deleted but officers used specialist software to retrieve some of the relevant material.

Another two phones belonging to Renshaw were later recovered and they showed evidence of searches for homosexual pornography.

When interviewed, he told police he was heterosexual and a virgin who did not believe in sex outside of marriage, and viewed homosexuality as "unnatural".

He went on to blame the police for putting material on his phone as he told them: "I believe this is a vicious, malicious attack to put me in prison, to ostracise me from the nationalist movement and to ostracise me from my family."

But at his trial he said that was a "kneejerk reaction" and he told the jury he now believed Hope Not Hate had hacked all four phones by "some form of synchronised access".

He said: "They are obsessed with me. They had a gripe with me for a long time.

"They have been writing articles about me since 2014.

"There was a pure hatred of me and everything I stand for."

Cross-examined by prosecutor Louise Brandon, he dismissed the views of three experts who gave evidence that hacking had not taken place and explained he had some experience in the field as a technician at Dixons Retail where he resolved computer hitches for customers.

Miss Brandon said his suggestion of remote access to his phones was one worthy of a spy novel.

She said to him: "The reality of this is you know that if people whose views you want and whose opinions matter to you knew you were interested in men and young boys then they would cast you out."

Renshaw replied: "That is not the case at all. The nationalist cause has gays in it. It's just I'm not gay."

Following his convictions for the child sex offences he was placed on the Sex Offender Register for 10 years and was told by Judge Robert Altham his 16-month jail term would start after he has completed his sentence for inciting racial hatred.

Renshaw had denied those offences, committed during a demonstration by a group named the North West Infidels on Blackpool Promenade in March 2016, and at a gathering of far-right extremists, the Yorkshire Forum For Nationalists, held the month before.

The court heard that the defendant had described Jewish people as parasites and called for them to be "eradicated" at the Yorkshire event, where he spoke to delegates from other far-right organisations.

During that sentencing hearing, Renshaw nodded his head in the dock as Judge Altham questioned whether he still held the same views as he had when he gave the two speeches.

The judge noted: "The defendant is resolute in his original views and withdraws nothing.

"He seeks to raise street armies, perpetrate violence against Jewish people and ultimately bring about genocide."