Police investigating death of Ann Widdicombe

[GoodHonest]

Very strange

She didn't believe a man could ever be a woman. This brought her a lot of abuse in life and now in death.

In order to avoid that abuse or because they are a bit simple, many other public figures who think when asked if this can be the case, retort that they don't want to go down that rabbit hole; 98% of women don't have a penis; trans women are women or that they are waiting for guidance.

From her wiki page it looks like she was brought up an evangelical anglican (c of e) (she went to a convent school), became an Anglican in her 30s (how does that work?) and then left c of e later and converted to Catholicism in early 90s.

It's already been said that this is untrue. She got an apology and a correction from the Daily Mirror for having said it:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/for-the-record/ann-widdecombe--apology-correction-30566217

In an article published on the 21st of May 2023 we wrongly reported that Ann Widdecombe was famous for insisting that pregnant prisoners should be handcuffed whilst giving birth in hospital. This is incorrect and she has never insisted or advocated that pregnant women should be handcuffed whilst giving birth.
In fact Miss Widdecombe made clear at the time when addressing the House of Commons in 1996 that it has never been Prison Service policy to keep women handcuffed during labour and childbirth and that restraints are removed when treatment has commenced or, in the case of pregnant women, when labour is confirmed.
We are happy to set the record straight and apologise to Miss Widdecombe for the error”.

Shocking that people are still spreading this lie.

Probably some lefty nut job.

If you read the post you're replying to it doesn't mention being shackled during labour, it mentions being shackled and handcuffed during transport and immediately after giving birth.

You also ignore that she refused to allow midwives into prison to provide antenatal care.

I watched the interviews. She denied that they were labouring in handcuffs, it was happening. There were documentaries/interviews carried out in the Mum and baby block in Styal prison. Over 200 babies died or were harmed by the lack of care in British women's prisons. She denied that it was happening, so therefore wouldn't say that it was wrong. She had a terrible attitude to the working class, opposed any form of diversity and was oddly against cooking classes for working class children and disadvantaged groups.
"In fact Miss Widdecombe made clear at the time when addressing the House of Commons in 1996 that it has never been Prison Service policy to keep women handcuffed during labour and childbirth"
Yet hospitals and midwives reported it happening. It wasn't policy, but it wasn't stopped. You'd find the treatment of unmarried mothers wasn't policy, but it was happening.

This.

Some did wrongly accuse her of supporting shackling during labour and that was very wrong as she didn't say that.

But the criticisms, which I agree with, went beyond that.

They say right now it wasn't politically motivated but we will have to see.

Does her area have a high violent crime rate? I need to check where she lived.

It wasn't policy, but it wasn't stopped. You'd find the treatment of unmarried mothers wasn't policy, but it was happening.

• this, Widdecombe may have not personally supported some of this but for whatever reason it seems the treatment of women went far beyond what she claimed to support.

And her position had issues anyway. She said they had to be chained before labour was confirmed in case they tried to run as women had escaped from hospital, but were these pregnant women with labour expected? None of the shackled women were classified as dangerous.

Jeeeeezus, Stretch Armstrong or wot?!!

Talk about reaching 🙄

@EnquiringMindsWantToKnow , well you’re looking very foolish now…

It’s you who is sounding ridiculous- I didn’t say anything about your post being racist, I didn’t think you were being racist (on this occasion) Racism is not the only -ism, and not the only way to be offensive and point the finger at specific groups.

he has been released
i bet there wasnt much cctv in the very rural area

She’s previously said she had external security cameras. Of course it’s possible the weren’t working.

So did the police just pick up some random man, delay the press conference for almost two hours so that they could announce they had arrested random man, keep him in custody for almost 24 hours and then, after all this, suddenly discover that...

he is as innocent as a new born babe.

Well call, me an old cynic but I would like to know on what grounds they did all this. Do the police arrest complete randoms?

Have the police arrested Herbert Heather for his social media hate crimes yet?

If not, why not?

I think we should all cut the police some slack. If they had reason to suspect this man they would have been slated if they had not taken him into custody and let him roam free. It is not unusual for someone to be detained on suspicion and this is sensible.

Let us hope they will catch the perpetrator soon.

It is appalling that she should have died in this way, although just about everything about her was unacceptable to me.

Possibly the man arrested was someone who'd visited or been seen near the house that day. Or someone who'd made threats to her. Unlikely they arrested him on no grounds whatsoever.

Hopefully they find the real perpetrator soon.

I thought that , maybe the 26 year old was already known to the police and was seen in the area that day.
Such sad news though, I hope they find the culprit soon.

That is deplorable. I’m sickened to the core. Handcuffed and screaming in agony??

What a despicable man.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/ckg47dkwz14

Sadly Ann was attacked and killed a few hours after this video. Devon and Cornwall police said: "We believe the attack took place on Wednesday 8 July at around 12.30pm."

eta she was attacked 24 hours before she was found dead by paramedics. Horrible.

They do often arrest and release people who fit the description of the suspect which was in this case a man of this age. It doesn’t mean he won’t be re-arrested if new information comes to light. He could be completely innocent but looks like there wasn’t enough to charge him at that stage and they ran out of time.

Yes.

Not sure if it’s been mentioned but she was due to appear on 5 day time and she stopped responding to messages and never turned up. Her agent was then contacted to check in on her

But isn't that exactly why they don't go round arresting everyone the minute they come to their attention - they check their alibis etc first, and only when they have some sort of evidence do they arrest the person? Otherwise they can't arrest them again until they're ready to charge him?

Because in this case it looks as though they may have arrested him before they even had a clear time of death, and if that's what eliminated him, then that's really poor work from the police.

If OTOH they arrested him and just ran out of time, that's possibly even worse, because they may well need to question him again. How will they do that?

in this case it looks as though they may have arrested him before they even had a clear time of death, and if that's what eliminated him, then that's really poor work from the police.

How do you know the police didn't have a clear time of death? @Emilesgran