There has at last been a charge made in the case of the murder of former Tory MP and latterly Reform Party member Ann Widecombe.

Joshua Kerry aged 28 and from Rotherham in South Yorkshire has been charged with the murder of Ms Widdecombe. Police have said that they are still actively investigating what may have been the motivation for this killing and I suspect that there might be additional charges laid against Kerry at some time in the future.

Based on my experience as a court reporter I have to say that it is not at all unusual for a person to be charged with one offence at one point in time but who then might face further charges later on. A lot might depend on what information the investigation uncovers about the alleged motivations of the accused. This might be a straight up and down murder or there might be evidence of other offences and we will just have to wait and see what transpires.

I’m legally limited in what I can say about this case and even if I was not I would not wish to say anything that might prejudice any future trial. What I will say however is that although this is going to be a case that’s going to garner an awful lot of public interest but that prior to the trial there will be very very little coming out about this case from either the police or other state agencies such as the Crown Prosecution Service. When it comes to this silence it’s not that the police or the CPS are hiding stuff for nefarious reasons it’s because they don’t want to release information that might create legal hostages to fortune sometime down the line. Remember one small public slip in a case can lose it for the Crown if it is challenged at some later point. The silence isn’t anything unusual it’s just how the system works.