The police have revealed their CCTV timing of the Jo cox murder.
Had Thomas Mair been planning to kill Jo Cox, he would have arrived at the Birstall library at least five minutes before her – if he wanted to get her as she emerged from her car. He would have had to be there, waiting for her.
But, the police timeline, published by the local newspaper, puts him there for hardly one minute – and, has him arriving too late.
Impossible? Let’s check this out (thanks to Helen Turner for this detective work).
We here allude to the times in minutes given on that police video, for its CCTV sequence. We cite only images with date-and-times given on them.
Their video starts on the day before, the 15th, which we ignore. We start at four minutes and sixteen seconds of their video.
4.16 mins
The time here is given as 11.52 am, on the 16th, in Birstall market: we see a figure loitering, with hunched shoulders, a black jacket with a brown jacket over his arm, and cream cap. He is supposed to be Thomas Mair.
4.42 mins
At 12. 50. 58 am, the silver Astra with Jo Cox drives up the hill to Birstall library:
5.06 mins
‘Mair’ is opposite the market at 12 51 41. We see a sequence of him in the distance, strolling towards library. A blue arrow points to him:
At 12.52.03 there began the assault on Jo Cox, as she emerged from her car (court testimony).
5.20 mins
At 12. 53. 52 ‘Mair’ with his white hat calmly walks down the hill, Market Street. This is AFTER the event and he is now about 90m away, walking away from the library. A blue arrow points to him:
Here is a street map showing how far he has now gone, it is a good minute’s walk:
Summary: the official police CCTV record puts ‘Mair’ as not yet having reached the library at ten seconds before 12.52, when the assault is meant to have begun. So he would have arrived too late. Then, two minutes after that image, he is shown as walking away from the Birstall library, being some 90 metres from it. The police timeline has him arrive too late and leave too soon.
This suggests that Thomas Mair is innocent.
Let us recall, how the Court heard details of the assault: after firing one bullet, Mair walked away, we were shown him crossing the road then coming back again, to fire two more at the victim. The strange gun had to be reloaded each time. Then he reached into his bag and pulled out a dagger. Then a taxi driver turned up and Mair interacted with him. Then Bernard Kenny crossed over the road and got stabbed. Then we heard Jo Cox how lying on the ground, dying, spoke. Then her assistant pleaded with Mair to stop. We heard how two women emerging from the car swung their handbags at him. He stood over the victim and stabbed her fifteen times. All his drama would have taken time, surely not less than five minutes.*
There was a lot more CCTV shown in the court, and if that could be released with the timestamps it might clarify things further.
********************
The Next Day
Here is a police picture of ‘Mair’ the next day the 17th, showing no trace of bruising or cut on forehead. The Court was told how two police officers had arrested him by grabbing his arms and pulling him down onto his knees, at 1.34 pm., so his head hit the pavement and bled profusely. The police have badly muddled up their own story.
* We could also add here, In the minutes before, Mark Donlan had seen Mair lingering around outside the Vape Lounge [2-4 Market Street] “acting in a strange way”. He described how he had casually eaten a Cadbury’s Flake before the attack, putting the wrapper in a bin. Investigators recovered it. Mr Donlan told police: “I can definitely say that the man who discharged the gun was the man I had seen outside my shop.” This was missed out in the trial.