Ann Widdecombe was bludgeoned 21 times over the head with a hammer in a two-minute attack captured on camera after suspect Joshua Kerry entered her home through the open front door, a court heard today. The Mail has more.
Joshua Kerry, 28, is accused of entering the former Tory minister and Brexit Party MEP’s Dartmoor home through the open front door and murdering her as she ate lunch in her kitchen.
Kerry, who was in the dock at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, then rifled through her handbag, grabbed her wallet and fled after spending just 120 seconds inside the property, prosecutor Kashif Malik said.
Widdecombe’s gardener found her lying face down on her kitchen floor, around 24 hours after she was killed.
Kerry was allegedly filmed arriving at the bungalow in his red Vauxhall Corsa on a Ring doorbell camera before attacking the politician with a hammer in view of another camera in the hallway.
The 78 year-old was eating lunch shortly before a pre-arranged Zoom interview that was due to be broadcast live on Channel 5’s Matt Allwright show at 12.50pm on July 8th.
Prosecutors say Kerry drove 300 miles to Dartmoor from his home in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, and entered the property wearing gloves with a hammer hidden behind his back.
He is alleged to have confronted Widdecombe as she ate, asking her: “Don’t suppose you have bank cards and ID?”
He then struck her 21 times on the top of her head.
The 28 year-old is said to have then tipped her from her chair on to the kitchen floor before stealing her wallet.
Just two minutes after entering the politician’s home, Kerry was back in his car and driving away from the scene, prosecutors say.
Around 24 hours later, on July 9th, Widdecombe’s gardener found her lying face-down on the kitchen floor with a severe head injury.
He had been asked to check on her by her personal assistant after she was unable to contact her. The front door was open and held back by a doorstop.
Paramedics were called to the property and confirmed she had died. Police arrived at 12.01pm.
After the red Vauxhall Corsa was traced to Rotherham, Kerry was arrested at his home at 9.07pm on suspicion of murder. He was later further arrested under the Terrorism Act.
Police searches of the property recovered a hammer and a pair of gloves from a bin, prosecutors said.
A mobile phone seized from the defendant allegedly contained photographs taken on the day of Widdecombe’s murder showing her driving licence and bank cards, which prosecutors say were stolen after the attack.
Today Joshua Kerry spoke only to confirm his name and address when he appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
He did not enter a plea during the short hearing.
Worth reading in full.
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Why do these murderers always seem to have photos of them in the newspapers of a pleasant, happy looking character? Adds insult to injury!
It really does. You are right to point it out.
Does anyone else think this story is fake news? Wasn’t Ann about to blow the whistle on the gov’t? According to Ann? Her friends at talk radio and GB news have suddenly gone silent. I wonder why. A warning to others to keep their mouths shut?
It is very odd that a man travels that far to kill his victim quickly and then leaves the scene of the crime quickly. He must have suspected a hidden alarm system.
My limited understanding of ‘nutters’ would be they would want to prolong the process until they achieved an emotional/sexual high.
If it was as simple as explained, then it surely would favour the new Govt to have it resolved quickly in Court and then ‘forgotten’ about before a GE??
So why the continual “misinformation” from Devon and Cornwall Plod; Two-Tier insisting to Farage that it was just a burglary gone wrong and – eventually – a reluctant admission that it is being treated as an act of terrorism?
Could it possibly be because the elderly, female victim was on the conservative side of the political spectrum and the (already identified “alleged” murderer caught on camera) is an extremist lefty?
And we all know that lefties are kind and caring people who wouldn’t harm a fly …… unless of course you carry out a body count for the number of people killed by Socialist and Communist regimes during the last 100+ years.
If it had been, say, Diane Abbot, bludgeoned to death by “a Faaah Rite” terrorist the reaction from Plod, Two-Tier and the MSM would have been completely different and the BBC would STILL be leading the news with it.
Cynical old me.
A trial date was set for June 8 next year. How can it take that long to complete any further forensic analysis and compile the court papers. From evidence presented in court today it is difficult to see how much more evidence they need.
What a shockingly inefficient and costly judicial system we have. Its only advantage is it shuts down a lot of public comment and gives the political class more time to divert attention and change the narrative.
On the Crown Court waiting list, by the look of it.
You have hit the nail on the head! It’s just like the trial date for the Evil Sikh Thuggee Family who helped the murderer of Henry Nowak: the trial date for Sikh Murderer Vickrum Singh Digwa’s father & brother has been set for late summer next year, but until then they are free to harass and threaten Henry’s family, or flee the country. As you rightly said, how can it take that long to complete forensic analysis and compile court papers, after police seized dozens of weapons from their home? Yet they are still pleading “Not Guilty” of possessing those weapons !!!
Not sure how any threatening is going to make any difference, and quite possibly they have been ordered to report on bail often enough to make travelling difficult. You can bet that if their passports are still with them that they’ve been added to the watch list.
I really hope that the forensic experts will test all those Sikh weapons, and especially the Sikh murder weapon, for traces of chemicals with “STYPTIC PROPERTIES”, which would explain the strange lack of external bleeding from Henry’s stab wounds, which was instrumental in deceiving the police. The whole Sikh cult originated with the Sikh Thuggee Murder Gangs of India, who were obsessed with preventing the living blood of their victims from falling upon the ground, according to some imaginary diktat from the monster Kali-Allah they worship, and the plant called “Datura” was widely used by robbers and murderers to incapacitate and poison victims travelling on the roads of India, as described and largely suppressed by the tireless, heroic efforts of Sir William Henry Sleeman and the British Army two centuries ago.
I don’t know whether “Datura” also has styptic properties, but dipping bladed weapons in poison was practiced at various times and places in history. Ayurvedic Medicine including herbs with styptic properties would be well worth a look.
I don’t know much about what you mention, but with a long thin blade it’s entirely possible to cause internal bleeding which doesn’t easily escape through the relatively narrow and thin wounds made during the attack.
I imagine that there should have been more information provided during the trial, but I have not seen anything specific.
From what I have read it seems that the bleeding was pretty much into the lungs and chest cavity. That could be why the police were so dismissive of Harry’s appeals for help, they couldn’t see much, if any, blood.
No, it’s because they recruit woke idiots and train them to be anti-white racists.
That is unjust, because there have been several reports of police officers FORCED to attend the Communist Propaganda sessions against their will.
They didn’t believe Henry for three reasons:
1) When they asked him more than once to tell them WHERE he had been stabbed, he didn’t answer, undoubtedly because he was at death’s door and couldn’t summon the strength to describe his wounds.
2) They couldn’t see any blood from stab wounds, even when they lifted his shirt slightly.
3) Hovering over them, gloating as Henry lay dying, was the Lying Sikh Coward, “Victim of an Unarmed White Racist Attack”, assuring the police that,
“He hasn’t been stabbed. I don’t know why he’s saying that!”
Yes, of course there was widespread reporting that the Sikh murder weapon caused massive INTERNAL bleeding from the stab wounds to Henry’s chest and back, but the SMALLEST LACERATION to the skin, even a tiny shaving nick, will cause visible external bleeding, sometimes a lot of bleeding, as you know. The slicing gashes on the back of Henry’s legs the Sikh Murderer inflicted to stop Henry from running away would also have caused massive external bleeding, though Henry’s football training defeated the Snivelling Sikh Coward’s aim, and the valiant teenage Henry was able to leap over a border fence in a last ditch attempt to escape, before collapsing on the other side.
It seems to me obvious that there MUST have been some type of STYPTIC substance deliberately placed on that blade beforehand, as part of creepy Sikh Thuggee rituals, and I hope the forensic investigators will look into that.
Please also see this news from Canada:
VIDEO: Canadian Gym Employee FIRED After Asking A Sikh Who Was Dressed Up Like An Assassin From “Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom” With Knives & Daggers Hanging Off Of Him To Either Take Them Off Or Leave! – Alex Jones Live
I wish you hadn’t used that metaphor.
A cynic might suppose that delay by our self appointed betters suits their aims better than speedy justice
Cynical old me suspects it’s because they want it to start AFTER the Cock of the North calls a snap General Election in May 2027.
Please let’s not follow the mainstream’s “Welsh Choirboy” images, and show the court sketch of this Evil B*stard who bludgeoned Ann Widdecombe to death:
New image of Ann Widdecombe murder suspect released as trial date set – Liverpool Echo
Similar image on the BBC Website.
I’ve just did a search on why courtroom sketches never look anything like the subject in reality. It’s because the artists aren’t even allowed to sketch while in the courtroom, they must do it afterwards from memory. To my mind they might as well not bother. I’ve seen another sketch from a different artist which looks different again. Then there’s the pic of the topless flabby guy who was clean-shaven, taking his bin out. The scumbag’s obviously a shapeshifter. 🙁
Here is a partial face shot of the murderer coming from court;
https://x.com/i/status/2079652201874534618
But didn’t they state early on that Ann had possibly died from a fall? You do not need to possess Dexter Morgan-level forensic skills to deduce the fact that 21 rage-fuelled blows to a person’s cranium looks different from them tripping up and hitting their head on the coffee table. Just a functioning pair of eyes would suffice.
And when they arrested him first time before letting him go, had they not viewed the camera footage? How come?🤨 That picture above must be well out of date as he looks nothing like the guy in the courtroom sketch in the article. He obviously had a shave and wore contacts for the occasion. Evil, commie bastard, taking out a vulnerable elderly woman like that.🤬
They arrested someone else – a local, more or less, who was later released with no charge. The Mail article is selective about that, but Devon & Cornwall Police might have treated it as a fairly easy case to start with. It was a bit later when others took over.
Apparently an Amazon delivery driver was the first person arrested, no doubt he had a lot of evidence to prove where he was and when.
What gets me is the fact that if he just wanted to ‘off’ poor Ann quickly and efficiently he could’ve done so within the first few blows, but he just kept going and going, long after she must’ve died. It’s not so much your typical ‘crime of passion’, because he didn’t know Ann personally, but more that he was evidently so filled with rage that he completely lost control and couldn’t stop himself, or he chose not to stop. This element is immensely fecked up, in my opinion. The guy had some serious anger and hate issues going on, I think., and Ann was the perfect soft target for such a cowardly and despicable dirtbag.
Because it states here that he was rearrested I assumed that meant they must’ve released him first in order to rearrest him. Or does ”rearrest” mean he was additionally arrested under other charges that were later brought? Not sure…;
”Kerry was first arrested on suspicion of murder two days after former Conservative minister and Reform UK spokeswoman, Widdecombe, 78, was found with serious injuries at her home in Haytor, Devon.
He was later re-arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of… Read more »
I believe that he was not released but another arrest was made under a different set of rules which meant he could be detained for a much longer period than the original arrest permitted.
It’s basically lazy, idiotic reporting. He wasn’t ‘re-arrested’, he was ‘further arrested’.
Ah OK, cheers for clearing that up. I thought I must’ve misunderstood the term because surely to be rearrested you’d need to be freed after the initial arrest, which didn’t make much sense, especially if they had all the evidence they need in the form of video footage of him committing the murder.
I don’t know if you or anyone else can shed any light on this. Why is it that victims over the age of 74yrs old don’t get included in the Crime Survey for England and Wales? But do victims over 74yrs get included in national crime stats and this survey is something separate? Just seems irrational to have a cut-off age, as if victims of crime in this category are irrelevant. Also, you’re not technically an adult at 16yrs, so if anything that age category shouldn’t be included;
Somehing smells off.
I hadn’t even heard of the term ‘overkill’ in this context, but this seems to apply to Ann’s murder. What does this tell us about the men who carry out such violent, atrocious acts against elderly women, other than they’re badly in need of therapy for their evident psychological issues?
Poor Ann. A horrible way to die. Who had that much rage? Is this gentleman a Fall guy? Something smells off.
I think those statements were made by people who didn’t really grasp the details or were told to divert attention while the police did further analysis.
The whole case seems to be a total screw-up until more experience people got involved.
A complete unknown can get in a car and drive for four hours, walk in to an elderly woman’s house and hit her over the head 21 times, drive home another four hours and then it’s nearly 24 hours before the victim is found, when the initial police statement rules out foul play. Doesn’t say much for our caring society.
I live in the area covered by Devon and Cornwall Police, and have never had any confidence in them. It is clear that Ann Widdecombe was very much loved by her neighbours, but they didn’t like to intrude, which I suspect is why she wasn’t found for some time.
Innocent til proven guilty.
The video footage of him killing Ann obviously proves his guilt irrespective of what he might plead, before a trial even commences. Now they just go through the formalities and hear from the horse’s mouth why he did it.
First media reports said she was found by her carer, and had either fallen or been attacked. I thought that odd since she didn’t look like she needed a carer, and as you remark injuries from falling over at home and being attacked should have been evident to whichever police doctor/pathologist examined her at the scene.
In fact she was found by her gardener and her injuries were not consistent with having fallen over.
No social media? I don’t think so mate.