Following a seven-day trial at the Old Bailey, rightwing terrorist Thomas Mair has been sentenced to life in prison for murdering the Labour MP Jo Cox.

Cox, who was the first sitting MP to have been killed since 1990, studied at Pembroke College between 1993 and 1995. She took papers in Archaeology and Anthropology, and Social and Political Sciences.

Cox, 41, was attacked by Mair on the 16th June this year, in Birstall, West Yorkshire. He shot her three times, and stabbed her fifteen times. She died shortly afterwards, in an ambulance. She left behind a husband and two young children.

Mair did not give a statement in court. Evidence gathered by the police showed he had a fixation on white supremacy and the Nazis.

Following the court verdict, the head of special crime and counter terrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service, Sue Hemming, said: “Mair has offered no explanation for his actions but the prosecution was able to demonstrate that, motivated by hate, his pre-meditated crimes were nothing less than acts of terrorism designed to advance his twisted ideology.”

Shortly after Cox’s death, Pembroke announced it would set up a studentship in memory of Cox.

The studentship will go to a refugee student or someone “from a background like Jo’s who might otherwise find it difficult to come to Cambridge”.

Former Labour Cabinet minister and current Master of Pembroke College, Lord Smith of Finsbury, said that Jo stood for “the politics of hope and love”.

“[W]e grieve for someone with so much promise who has been cruelly taken from us all,” Finsbury said.