{"id":731134,"date":"2026-08-08T04:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/731134\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:44:11","slug":"police-investigating-ann-widdecombe-murder-reopen-attempted-burglary-case-from-2025-ann-widdecombe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/731134\/","title":{"rendered":"Police investigating Ann Widdecombe murder reopen attempted burglary case from 2025 | Ann Widdecombe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Counter-terrorism police investigating the death of Ann Widdecombe<\/a> say they have reopened an old investigation into an attempted burglary last year.<\/p>\n

The incident at an address in Greater London was reported in April 2025.<\/p>\n

Since the case was reopened, CTP London said it had identified a line of inquiry \u201cwhich may have been relevant\u201d but was \u201cnot identified and pursued by [counter-terrorism police] at the time\u201d.<\/p>\n

The police watchdog said it is now investigating the conduct of a CTP London staff member over allegations they \u201cfailed to identify and pursue a line of inquiry\u201d related to the attempted burglary.<\/p>\n

Vicki Evans, senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism policing, said: \u201cAs part of the ongoing investigation led by counter-terrorism policing south-east into the murder of Ann Widdecombe, officers have reopened an investigation into an incident reported to police last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

CTP London made a \u201cmandatory conduct referral\u201d to the Independent Office for Police<\/a> Conduct (IOPC) on Friday.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the IOPC said: \u201cWe can confirm that the IOPC has decided to independently investigate the conduct of a counter-terrorism policing London staff member following a referral received earlier today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conduct relates to an allegation the individual failed to identify and pursue a line of inquiry relating to an attempted burglary reported in April 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cCounter-terrorism policing London has been notified of our decision, and no further information is available at this early stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Widdecombe, 78, a former Conservative minister, was found dead on 9 July at her home in Haytor on Dartmoor, Devon, having sustained serious injuries.<\/p>\n

Last month, a 28-year-old man was charged with the former MP\u2019s murder.
Joshua Kerry, from Rotherham in South Yorkshire, was arrested on suspicion of murder on 11 July.<\/p>\n

He was also arrested on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism but has not been charged with this offence.<\/p>\n

Devon and Cornwall police initially arrested a 26-year-old man from Newton Abbot in Devon, but later released him and said he was no longer part of the investigation.<\/p>\n

Widdecombe served as Conservative MP for Maidstone, Kent for 23 years. She subsequently represented south-west England as a member of the European parliament for the Brexit party and in 2023 joined Reform UK as a party spokesperson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Counter-terrorism police investigating the death of Ann Widdecombe say they have reopened an old investigation into an attempted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-731134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}