Widdecombe Suspect Still Held as Scotland Brings a Charge Over Online Abuse
The man arrested over the killing of Ann Widdecombe remains in custody without charge, held under a Terrorism Act warrant while Counter Terrorism Policing leads what it has called a targeted attack; officers stress it has not been declared a terrorist incident. In a separate case, Police Scotland has charged a 50-year-old over online comments said to celebrate her death, with a report to go to the procurator fiscal. No motive has been established in the killing, and reporting restrictions limit what can be said while proceedings are active.
The case remains in the careful legal silence between an arrest and a charge: Counter Terrorism Policing is examining whether Widdecombe was targeted for her politics, but no motive has been confirmed, no one has been charged with her killing, and the incident has not been formally declared an act of terrorism. Coming after the murders of Jo Cox in 2016 and Sir David Amess in 2021, a third killing of a serving or former parliamentarian in a decade weighs heavily on a political class already anxious about its safety. The separate Scottish charge, over comments celebrating a violent death, is a reminder of how quickly such killings curdle the wider public mood online, and of the reach of the laws that govern it. With a review of MPs’ security still promised, the questions are about protection and the tenor of political life. Watch the charging decision in the murder inquiry, what investigators establish about motive, and the substance of any new security measures.