A court has heard that Ann Widdecombe, one of the most recognisable figures in recent British public life, died after being struck on the head with a hammer 21 times. The account was set out at an initial hearing for Joshua Kerry, who was brought before magistrates over the killing. A provisional cause of death was given as blunt trauma to the head as a result of those injuries.
Prosecutors told the court how the alarm was first raised. Widdecombe had been due to take part in an interview for Channel 5, and when she failed to appear the producers became concerned. They asked her gardener to go and check on her, and it was the gardener who discovered her lying face down on her kitchen floor.
According to the prosecution's account presented to the magistrate, the suspect was wearing black gloves and holding a hammer, and Widdecombe was struck 21 times on the head. It was stressed in court that this was the case being laid out by the prosecution, and Joshua Kerry has not yet entered a plea of guilty or not guilty to the charge.
The hearing itself at Westminster Magistrates' Court was brief. Kerry was brought in by three officers, wearing a grey sweatshirt and grey tracksuit bottoms, and stood to confirm his name, his age and his address. Because a murder charge is too serious to be dealt with by magistrates, he was sent to the Crown Court, remanded in custody and told he would appear there later.
Ann Widdecombe was a major presence in British politics for decades. She was first elected as a Conservative MP in 1987 and went on to serve as a minister in the government of John Major. In her later career she left the Conservatives and joined the Brexit Party, before more recently becoming a spokesperson for Reform UK.
Beyond Westminster, she was also well known to the wider public through a long media career. She appeared on Strictly Come Dancing and was a regular commentator on radio and television programmes, which kept her a familiar face and voice far beyond the world of party politics.
Her death has also reignited concern about the safety of elected representatives. Since the killing, there have been renewed calls for MP security to be reviewed, and the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, is calling for an inquiry into the safety of MPs. Counter-terror policing is understood to be examining the issue together with parliamentary authorities.