A man has appeared in court charged with the murder of Ann Widdecombe, an icon of British conservatism who was found dead at her Devon home earlier this month.Joshua Kerry, 28, is accused of killing Widdecombe, 78, at her bungalow in Haytor on July 8.Prosecutors allege he struck her 21 times with a hammer after entering the property while she was eating lunch.During a brief appearance at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, Kerry confirmed his name, date of birth and address. He did not enter a plea. NEW: A court sketch of Joshua Kerry, the man accused of murdering Ann Widdecombe with a hammer pic.twitter.com/ciRTirk5Ez— Politics UK (@PolitlcsUK) July 21, 2026Prosecutor Kashif Malik told the court that security camera footage placed Kerry at Widdecombe’s home shortly before the attack.He is alleged to have driven from his home in Rotherham, entered the bungalow through the front door, remained inside for around two minutes and then left with Widdecombe’s wallet.Concern for her welfare was raised after she failed to attend a scheduled online interview for Channel 5 shortly before 1pm.Widdecombe was discovered the following morning by her gardener, lying on the kitchen floor of her home. Emergency services pronounced her dead at the scene.28-Year-Old Radical Arrested for Bloody Assassination of 78-Year-Old British Conservative Ann Widdecombe/*! This file is auto-generated */!function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i