TalkTV presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer has criticised Devon and Cornwall Police after grisly details emerged about the death of former Reform UK MP Ann Widdecombe.
Widdecombe was found dead at her home in Haytor on Dartmoor, Devon, on July 9. A brief hearing at Exeter Coroner's Court on July 21 heard she suffered "visible injuries". Later, prosecutors told Westminster Magistrates' Court that she was hit on the head with a hammer 21 times at her home on July 8. Her gardener found her face down on the kitchen floor with a serious head injury.
Joshua Kerry, 28, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court over the death.
Police Response Under Fire
On July 22, Hartley-Brewer discussed the case with commentator Benedict Spence. She said: "We've got to talk about what the hell is going on with the police. Because the police initially said that they were investigating whether or not she'd had a fall and whether it was an accident or a burglary gone wrong."
She added: "The idea that anyone thought that finding a woman on the floor of her kitchen with a half-eaten lunch with her head having been hit by a hammer 21 times, that it might have been a fall [is preposterous]. How incompetent are they? Were they lying to us, or are they really that stupid?"
Concerns Over Policing Bias
Spence agreed, saying: "That's the problem, and it almost doesn't matter which, because either is horrific. Given the conversations that we've had about two-tier justice, whenever you are confronted with crimes such as these - and they are becoming more and more common - and the response from the police, you are left with almost no other alternative other than to say the idiocy is informed by the bias."
He argued that police officers are increasingly "confronted with awful crimes, and rather than go on instinct, they go, 'Hang on a second. How might this play if we say the wrong thing', and that I think is deeply concerning for so many people."
Spence also criticised those who say "do not politicise this", noting that Widdecombe was a Reform UK member and the case followed weeks of focus on MP security. He said: "But those same people were saying, 'Nah, Reform are just bent, they're just trying to deflect', but then the second something dreadful happens, they go, 'Absolutely, do not politicise this' is ridiculous."
