Ann Widdecombe 'was bludgeoned 21 times over head with hammer in attack caught on camera after killer walked through open front door as she ate lunch in kitchen'

daily mail ^ | July 21,2026 | martin Robinson

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Ann Widdecombe was bludgeoned 21 times over the head with a hammer in a 'ferocious' two-minute attack captured on camera, a court heard today.

The 78-year-old former minister was ambushed in her own kitchen by a hammer-wielding intruder while she was having her lunch, it was said.

Disturbing details of her brutal murder emerged today as her alleged killer Joshua Kerry appeared in court for the first time.

The 28-year-old is alleged to have walked into the former MP's kitchen through an unlocked front door asking, 'Don't suppose you have bank cards and ID?' as he held a hammer out of sight.

Prosecutors described the violence used as 'ferocious' saying Kerry struck the victim 21 times before shoving her body to the floor, rifling through her handbag for a wallet and fleeing the scene.

Today it emerged for the first time that the pensioner died from a 'blunt force injury to the head'.

But, just hours earlier a coroner had insisted the cause of death was unascertained.

Philip Spinney, senior coroner for the county of Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, opened an inquest into her death at 10am declaring: 'She was found to be unresponsive with visible injuries.

'A postmortem examination has taken place and at this stage the precise medical cause of death has yet to be established.'

But at a subsequent Westminster Magistrates Court hearing at 2pm, Prosecutor Kashir Malik said: 'A provisional cause of death from the pathologist was given as a blunt force injury to the head.'

He told the court that the attack was caught on a kitchen camera installed in Ms Widdecombe's home which recorded the defendant's movements and sounds from the victim.

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