A former neo-Nazi has told how he exposed a white supremacist’s sickening plot to murder an MP and a police officer.
Robbie Mullen’s actions led to vile Jack Renshaw being convicted of preparing an act of terrorism to murder Det Con Victoria Henderson and Labour’s Rosie Cooper.
It can now be reported that Renshaw is a convicted paedophile who groomed boys as young as 13.
Mullen has disclosed that the murder plots were Renshaw’s attempt to cover up the child sex offences.
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The revelations came as a jury failed to reach a verdict on whether Renshaw was a member of banned far right extremist group National Action.
Giving his first newspaper interview about his role in saving two lives, Mullen, 25, said: “Jack had a grudge against the police officer because she was investigating him.
“He didn’t really have a clue who the MP Rosie Cooper was.
“As an MP, she was seen by him as the puppet of Jews, trying to let immigrants in to weaken the white race.”
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Mullen, a former National Action member who became disaffected when the group shifted towards terrorism, says Renshaw, 23, planned to kill his local MP Ms Cooper so that he would be seen as a hero by the far right rather than a paedophile.
Mullen said: “He’d bought a 19-inch machete. He worked in a DIY shop so he used to go trade fairs. He’d seen it cut through a pig, and said a pig is the closest thing to human flesh.
“He was going to kill them, then planned to die by ‘suicide by cop’.”
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Ms Cooper, the MP for West Lancashire, said: “I’d like to thank Robbie Mullen, whose information saved my life. Our way of life, our democracy and our freedoms are being attacked by the likes of Renshaw and extremist groups like National Action.”
Until now, Mullen’s extraordinary insider account has remained untold for legal reasons.
But yesterday a judge at the Old Bailey ruled Renshaw will not face a retrial for alleged membership of National Action, meaning reporting restrictions have been lifted.
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Mullen started reading far right material after being excluded from school at 14. “I guess I thought it was rebellious,” he says. His dad died of cancer around the same time.
Mullen went on his first White Pride march in 2015. “It felt good,” he says. “Part of it is that everyone is against it. It attracts you. You move further right as you get involved.”
He explains how NA members told him “Jews were running everything”. He added there was a NA banner saying: “Hitler was right.”
Mullen said it all “became an obsession... apart from work, that was my whole life”.
In December 2016, National Action was banned after glorying in the death of the MP Jo Cox. Despite the ban, NA continued meeting.
The self-styled “white jihadis” even visited the aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing to see what a major terror attack looked like.
Mullen said: “They were excited about it, but they would have preferred it in reverse.”
It was when the group began preparing for a terrorist “race war” that Mullen emailed anti-extremist organisation HOPE not Hate.
He warned them NA was having knife and martial arts training in an underground gym. Matthew Collins, HOPE not Hate’s head of research, and a former member of the far right himself, emailed Mullen back.
Mullen eventually agreed to meet him in May 2017.
When Renshaw turned up to a NA meeting at a pub in Warrington, Cheshire, in July 2017 to win support for his plot, Mullen rang his handler, Mr Collins, and the double murder plot was revealed to police.
“I said, ‘he’s going to do it, I can see it in his eyes’,” Mullen remembers. “Someone was going to get killed. I knew I couldn’t let it happen…
“He was going to kill Rosie Cooper and take hostages in a pub. Then he would exchange the hostages for the female police officer who was investigating him.
“He was going to kill her and then be killed by the police. He said he’d wear a fake suicide vest, so they’d kill him.”
Last summer, Renshaw, from Skelmersdale, Lancs, admitted preparation for a terrorist act by purchasing a machete to kill Ms Cooper.
He also pleaded guilty to making a threat to kill Det Con Henderson. Renshaw has been remanded in custody to be sentenced in May.
It can now be reported he was jailed last June for 16 months after he groomed two underage boys online. Jurors at Preston crown court found him guilty of four counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
Renshaw, the former leader of the British National Party youth wing, was found to have set up two fake Facebook profiles and contacted a boy aged 13 and a boy of 14 between February 2016 and January 2017.
On Facebook Messenger, Renshaw told the teenagers he was rich, could give them jobs and offered one of them £300 to spend the night with him.
He also asked for intimate photos before one of the boys reported the messages to his tutor and the police were contacted.
Renshaw also received a three-year prison sentence two months earlier when he was found guilty of stirring up racial hatred after he called for the genocide of Jewish people.
But he denied membership of National Action. The jury at his retrial was discharged yesterday, having failed to reach a verdict.
Making the phone call that revealed Renshaw’s murder plot to HOPE not Hate meant Mullen had to leave his job and home in Widnes, Cheshire, and go into hiding.
Two years in hiding has taken its toll, and he seems withdrawn as he talks about the past few years.
He was offered the chance to appear by video link in court to give evidence against Renshaw and others but decided to appear in person.
“When I walked in, I instinctively looked towards them and smiled even though I was betraying them,” he says. “It was an old habit, I guess.”
He added: “I don’t have those views any more. But it’s easy to believe one side of an argument when it is all you know.
“I’d like to help young people understand the effects of going into the far right. It can get serious pretty quick. Go to HOPE not Hate. They can get you out.”
