Slain MP’s widower quits charities set up in her honor after report of sex assaults

LONDON, Feb. 20– The widower of British MP Jo Cox who was
murdered in a terrorist attack confirmed Sunday he has resigned from two
charities he helped to set-up after her death.

The decision by Brendan Cox follows details of sexual assault published by
the Mail on Sunday newspaper.  Cox admitted to the newspaper that his
behavior in the past had caused hurt and offence, but he denied claims,
reported to police for inappropriate touching in the U.S. that he assault a
woman while he was attending a course at Harvard University in 2015.   Both
charities, the Jo Cox Foundation and More in Common, confirmed they had
accepted his resignation.  The allegations cover a period when his wife was
still alive.  Jo Cox, a Labour MP,  was shot and stabbed close to her
office in West Yorkshire by a far-right extremist during the European Union
Referendum campaign in 2016. Her slaying in the street in broad daylight
sent shockwaves through Britain’s political establishment, with MPs from
all parties rallying around her husband.

Cox left the British aid charity Save the Children following complaints by
women about his behavior. In a statement released Sunday, Cox said: “While
I do not accept the allegations contained in the 2015 complaint to the
police in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I do acknowledge and understand that
during my time at Save the Children I made mistakes.”   Cox, who lived in a
house boat on the River Thames with the couple’s two sons, said some of the
allegations against him were a massive exaggeration. But he acknowledged
that he had at times overstepped the line.  The Mail on Sunday’s headline
read “Jo Cox’s husband Brendan confesses to inappropriate behaviour amid
new allegation that he drunkenly ‘grabbed a woman by the throat’ as he is
forced to quit the murdered MP’s charities”. It reported how  Cox, weeping
openly, apologised for the ‘hurt and offence’ he has caused to women, and
said that he was ‘deeply apologetic’ for his behavior.

The Mail, which had earlier reported the Harvard incident,  said Cox’s
confession came as the newspaper uncovered shocking new details of a second
sexual assault he allegedly committed. The accusation, said the Mail,
related to his time with Save The Children in the year before his wife was
killed by a far-right fanatic during the 2016 Brexit referendum campaign.
The incident, said the Mail, led to Cox being forced to leave the charity
in 2015. Save The Children’s CEO Justin Forsyth, a close friend of Cox and
former aide to Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, resigned from the
charity four months later. British aid charities have come under scrutiny
following reports that Oxfam staff had paid prostitutes for sex in Haiti
while working their following the 2010 earthquake. – XINHUA