Ann Widdecombe killed in hammer attack at Devon home, court hears

In the quiet of a Devon afternoon, a life shaped by decades of public service came to a violent end. Ann Widdecombe, a former Conservative MP and MEP whose career spanned Parliament, television, and political controversy, was killed in her own kitchen on July 8 — struck repeatedly with a hammer by a man who then took her wallet and drove away. Joshua Kerry, 28, has been charged with murder, and counter-terrorism detectives are now asking a question that weighs heavily on any open society: whether political conviction was the engine of this violence.