Prosecutors told London’s Old Bailey that the man charged with killing Ann Widdecombe held an extreme left-wing mindset and plotted a terror attack on Nigel Farage.
Joshua Kerry, 28, of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, appeared by video link from HMP Belmarsh as prosecutors laid out their case tying the July killing of the former Conservative minister to an alleged plot against the Brexit leader and other political figures.
Breitbart reported that Kerry faces a murder charge in the death of 78-year-old Ann Widdecombe and separate charges of plotting a terror attack on Nigel Farage, the Reform UK chief, along with other prominent political figures. He is set to contest every charge.
Prosecutor Jonathan Polnay KC told the court the two matters were “inextricably linked.” The judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, agreed to combine the related charges into a single case. A five-week trial is listed for June 8 of next year, with the next hearing set for January 29.
Widdecombe, a former Conservative government minister and MP who later served as a Reform UK spokeswoman, was found dead at her country home in Devon in July. Kerry was charged with her murder that same month.
Prosecutors say she was hit in the head with a hammer some 21 times. They allege Kerry drove roughly 265 miles from Rotherham to the Devon property in a van later found with a hammer inside.
The prosecution has argued the killing appears to have had a “terrorist connection” and was likely “politically and ideologically motivated.” Those claims sit at the center of the case now heading toward a combined trial.
Polnay told the Old Bailey that investigators recovered a digital trail pointing far beyond a single crime scene. He said Kerry had researched politicians and public figures and stored their details on his phone.
"created a note on his phone using the notes app, and it is that, that contained the home addresses of politicians and prominent figures"
Prosecutors also claim Kerry tried to break into Farage’s home. Farage’s address, they say, was among those saved in the note. The additional terror-plot charges came earlier this month, expanding a case that began with the July murder charge.
The ideological framing was blunt. Polnay told the court the phone evidence revealed a clear political orientation, not a random grudge.
"Analysis of the defendant’s telephone demonstrates an extreme Left-wing and/or anti-establishment mindset."
He also described “an extreme Left-wing mindset” as part of the picture prosecutors want a jury to see. In their account, the Widdecombe killing and the alleged Farage plot flow from the same worldview and the same target list: conservative and anti-establishment figures on the British right.
Widdecombe spent years as a Conservative minister and MP before aligning with Reform UK. Farage led the Brexit campaign and now heads Reform. Prosecutors say both names sat in Kerry’s research and address note. That is the linkage the Crown wants tried together.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb’s decision to merge the charges means the murder count and the terror-plot allegations will be heard in one proceeding rather than two separate trials. Kerry appeared from Belmarsh, a high-security prison, and has indicated he will fight all of the accusations against him.
The schedule is now fixed in outline. Another hearing is due January 29. The full trial is booked for five weeks starting June 8 of next year at the Old Bailey, London’s Central Criminal Court.
None of the prosecution’s claims have been tested before a jury. Kerry denies the charges. The court has only heard the opening outline: a Devon killing alleged to involve a hammer, a long drive from South Yorkshire, a phone note full of political home addresses, an alleged attempt on Farage’s home, and what prosecutors call an extreme left-wing and anti-establishment mindset tying it together.
Political violence dressed up as ideology is still violence. When prosecutors say a murder and a terror plot against public figures share the same motive, voters are entitled to a clear-eyed trial, and to leaders who treat threats against elected voices as the attack on democratic order they are.
