THE prime suspect for Ann Widdecombe’s murder gets into a red hatchback on his driveway five hours before she was fatally beaten at her home.
Our exclusive CCTV footage also shows him with an object, described as a wooden baton, in his shorts pocket.
The man left his Rotherham council house just before 8am last Wednesday and is suspected to have driven 267 miles to the MP and Strictly star’s bungalow in Haytor, Devon.
Police say Ann, 78, died after being attacked at 12.30pm that day.
The ex-Tory junior minister turned Reform UK politician was interviewed on TalkTV at 8am on Wednesday — just after the suspect had set off.
Ann was due on Channel 5’s Matt Allwright show at 1pm.
She replied to a text from a producer at 12.19pm but failed to join a Zoom link sent at 12.48pm.
Her body was found at 11.30pm on Thursday by a domestic assistant.
Sources say she died from severe blunt trauma to the head.
It is thought police initially believed she died after a fall and did not realise she had been murdered until a day later.
A Ring doorbell camera at Ann’s home showed a white British man and his car outside — giving police a key breakthrough.
Counter-terror cops with specialist resources helped pinpoint the suspect to his Yorkshire home.
CCTV obtained by The Sun showed police arriving to arrest him just before 10pm on Saturday.
Cops in balaclavas stormed the terraced property and arrested the suspect without a struggle.
He was led in handcuffs to a waiting van and driven to Devon for questioning.
One neighbour said: “It all started shortly before the England v Norway World Cup game kicked off at 10pm.
“We just heard a loud bang, like a window being put in. There were lots of police outside, some of them had masks on.
“They put him in handcuffs in the front garden and led him out.
“There was no shouting. He appeared to be co-operating.
Forensics officers then began a search for evidence.
More officers arrived at 1am to take pictures inside before his red car was towed away.
Locals said the suspect lived there alone after his father died just after Christmas. He is believed to be one of three sons.
A man was seen leaving an address linked to the Ann Widdecombe murder suspect and then putting a “wooden stick” in a car before driving away on the morning of her death, according to reports.
Miss Widdecombe, 78, was found dead at her home in Haytor on Dartmoor after police believe she was attacked on Wednesday lunchtime.
On Saturday evening, Devon and Cornwall Police arrested a man, 28, at an address in Rotherham on suspicion of the former Tory minister’s murder. On Sunday, amid substantial police presence in the Kimberworth Park area of Rotherham, The Telegraph reported it had seen CCTV footage that showed a man leaving an address linked to the suspect on Wednesday morning.
The man was said to have been seen putting “some kind of wooden stick” into the passenger side of a red car before driving off, the newspaper reported.
On Sunday morning, Devon and Cornwall Police said they were continuing to question a man arrested and said there was no evidence that Miss Widdecombe’s death was politically motivated.